Budding
by Purple Strobe
Summary: The Zeo Rangers have just gotten their powers and are now trying to balance their lives and saving the world.
1. Chapter I

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I think it's useless and would be somewhat hypocritical for me to say not to use any characters without my permission since I didn't have any permission taking the Power Ranger characters in the first place._

**A/N: **This story takes place after the Rangers received their Zeo Crystals, but before Jason got there. It's going to be a series, so if you wanna see Jason in here, I suggest you keep reading the story. Just so you know, it's going to be a Tanya/Adam, Kat/Tommy, Jason/Emily fic. Oh, and this story will lead up to 'Blooming'.

I'm really sorry that I deleted this story. I felt that I really wasn't at peace with it. I went back and made some modifications. Chapter One is prettey much the same...just a heads up; but from there on the story takes a different turn. It's pretty much more action. I completely had messed up with the timeline making me so uneasy. In the end, I realized, the only way I was going to be truly happy with this story was to rewrite it. I'm still working on a few more clitches with the other chapters. I hope these will do for now.

**Budding**

**Chapter I / New Powers: New Faces**

"Jeff, leave the kid alone." A stern voice came from behind the 17 year old bully. Jeff Anderson turned around to see a plump teen wearing a Junior Police badge with his hands on his sides.

The tall teenage boy with dark brown hair was bullying a freshman in the entrance of the Angel Grove Youth Center Gym and Juice Bar.

"Oh, come on Bulk, you can't be serious" said Jeff.

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" Jeff looked straight into Farkas Bulkmeier's eyes and left without saying another word.

"Nice work Bulk, next one's mine" said Eugene Skullovitch.

Bulk and Skull were known as the school's bullies since they were kids. They both decided to straighten up and become Junior Police officers for Angel Grove under the supervision of Lt. Jerome Stone. No one knew that Bulk and Skull were seniors and were almost going to graduate. It was something both of them liked to keep under wraps.

In the past few days, Bulk, with the help of his protégé Skull, had both managed to accidentally get their Lieutenant fired. They felt that having their boss leave on account of their faults, both decided that they should quit and follow in Jerome Stone's footsteps.

The three teens sitting at their usual table are amazed at the sight they had seen. They had all been left with their mouths open when the two boys first announced their decision.

"I can't believe they actually went through with it," said Adam Park.

"I know what you mean," Tanya Sloan added in, "you know what happened to me yesterday?"

"What?" Her best friend, Katherine Hillard, asked.

"Well, I was in the Resource Ceenter studying, when all of a sudden I dropped my pen. Then, Skull went by my side and he picked it up, and guess what he said… 'I think this belongs to you'."

"No" Kat and Adam said uniting their voices to get a louder whisper than they had anticipated.

"Umm hmm. I couldn't believe it. I guess they really told them something useful at the police academy."

"Well, maybe it's a good thing. It seems like it's been working out so far," said Kat.

"Oh man, speaking of working out, I promised Tommy I'd meet him at the park to work on some katas," said Adam, standing up frantically from the table.

"Calm down Adam, knowing Tommy, he's probably as distressed as you are right now remembering the same thing." Tanya joked about the Red Zeo Ranger's faulty memory.

Katherine laughed as Adam said his goodbye to the girls and rushed over to the park not acknowledging the joke about his friend.

Katherine sighed and fell back on her chair asking, "So, what do you wanna do today?"

"Girl, it's Saturday," Tanya said.

Katherine looked at her with confusion.

"The mall…" Tanya stated, waving her palm in the air, then pointing at her communicator, "it's almost twelve."

Kat quickly gasped and sat up, remembering what they were going to do that Saturday.

"Sale!" they both said at the same time, before getting up and heading to Kat's car.

- - -

At the park, Tommy Oliver was performing a number of concentrated katas before his extreme workout with Adam.

They are both trying to get practice time in for the karate tournament Adam entered.

Adam ran up to the hill Tommy was on.

"Hey man, sorry I'm late. I got caught up with the girls at the Youth Center."

"It's alright; I was just about to finish."

Adam went over and put his belongings that he won't need into his backpack.

"So, ready?" Asks Tommy as he saw Adam approaching him.

"Ready", he responded.

- - -

"Where are you going?" Rocky DeSantos asked his girlfriend, Sherry Marquez.

"I'm going with the girls to the mall. There's a sale and it ends at five! I have to go."

Katherine and Tanya waited for Sherry outside her driveway. She came out with Rocky following behind her.

"What am _I_ supposed to do for the rest of the day?" He asked her.

Tanya heard him and said, "You know, Adam and Tommy are at the park doing katas. You can go over there."

Sherry turned around and hugged her boyfriend, "Yeah babe, go get that body even more buff for me."

Rocky smiled before planting a kiss on her.

"Okay", he said, before adding, "Kat, you think you could give me a ride?"

"Sure" she responded.

Both Rocky and Sherry got into Kat's convertible.

"Whoa Kat, nice wheels!" Rocky complimented.

"Thanks" she said while turning on the ignition, "Birthday present."

"From your folks?" Asked Sherry.

"Na', they think me getting a car is dangerous. My aunt gave it to me after she bought a new car for herself."

As they were heading out of the driveway, Rocky had to ask, "How did your folks take it?"

"They just said as long as I'm careful and don't screw up, then they won't make a big fuss about it."

"And have they?" Sherry asked.

"You know parents", answered Tanya for Kat, "they say they're gonna do something, and they end up doing another."

"Yup" Kat said, nodding her head as she stepped on the accelerator and drove off.

- - -

The four teens arrived at the park. Katherine didn't go all the way inside the parking lot because Rocky had told her to park on the side.

"Alright guys, see you later." Rocky said, getting off.

"You sure you don't wanna go to the mall with us?" Asked Tanya.

"Heeeellll No!" Rocky said jokingly, but still saying the truth.

The girls laughed while Rocky leaned over and kissed Sherry quickly before heading over and running towards the guys.

Tommy and Adam, from the distance saw the girls and both waved. The girls waved back before going off to the mall.

- - -

"Oh my gosh, this 'Easter Savings' sale is so awesome!" Sherry exclaimed as she looked around at all the people.

The three girls were roaming the stores. The entire mall, store after store, was having an April sale from twelve to five. They knew they had to work fast.

"I have to go to Dillard's and buy a coat!" Exclaimed Tanya.

"Umm, Tanya, we're going into summer." Kat told her.

"Yeah, I know, but with the sale going on, and the coats already being cheap cuz summer's coming up, they're a lot cheaper." She replied.

Both Kat and Sherry looked at each other, "You know I never really saw it that way", said Sherry.

Katherine gasped as she remembered something, "Do you think they still have the yellow leather coat there?"

"I don't know, you think?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out", said Sherry, taking them both by the hand and pulling them towards the store.

- - -

"What do you think the girls are doing?" asked Adam, after he and Tommy sat down for a break.

"They went shopping." Answered Rocky, "Kat and Tanya picked Sherry up, then dropped me off here so they could go."

"Oh," said Adam.

"Weren't they talking about some big sale that was going on or something?" asked Tommy.

"Yeah, it has to be a pretty big sale," said Adam with disappointment in his voice, "Tanya missed her lesson today."

"Awww" both Tommy and Rocky said in unity, laughing afterwards at Adams fake, childish nod.

"Don't worry, man, I'm sure Tanya's sorry." Tommy tried to cheer him up.

"It's alright," Adam said shrugging his shoulders and speaking with easiness in his voice, "there's always next time. Besides, it's not like these girls like to shopping 24/7, right?"

"Oh, come on Adam," said Rocky looking at Adam, "don't try to play it all smooth either."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, you've been gaga over Tanya since she said she liked baseball and you two started spending more time with each other."

Tommy laughed, "He's got a point there," he said still laughing.

Adam, jokingly looking annoyed, looked at Tommy, "And what are you laughing at? As I remember, who was the one telling Kat, 'it doesn't matter what you wear, you look great in anything'" Adam teased.

Both Adam and Rocky laughed at the expense of a now blushing Tommy.

"Dude I _had_ to tell him," said Rocky, being the one that heard Tommy say that to Kat when the 'come as your favorite decade' dance was approaching.

"Don't bring me into this okay?" said Tommy, letting the other two continue with their bickering.

- - -

"I need to go to Hot Topic," said Kat.

"What for?" asked Tanya in curiosity while they were heading up the escalator.

"I need to buy nail polish. I'm running out."

"Oh please, you expect me to believe that?"

"Why not? It's the only store that has Morbid"

"You just wanna go and check out that hot guy who works in the back."

"And?"

They both started laughing knowing that Tanya was right.

"What hot guy?" asked Sherry, wanting to get up to date.

"There's this guy who works at Hot Topic," began Tanya, "we were there last week checking out the store for her cousin's birthday. She's into rock and stuff. Anyways, we go in, and instantly this guy is just staring at Kat. She first asks me if she has something on her face, but then we realized that he was looking at her the whole time we were there."

"Really? What does he look like?"

"Well," said Tanya, "he's like six something; tall, in other words. Thin…"

"And cute, don't forget cute" said Kat with a smile, then she looked at Sherry and added, "Really cute."

"Yeah, he's really cute, with hair down to his ears. He has that sort of covering one eye hair do. But it suits him really well. Umm, what else?" Tanya tried to remember more about him then Kat cut in.

"He's got his eyebrow pierced. _Very_ sexy" she added.

"So, is he like a bad boy or something?" questioned Sherry.

"Umm, yeah, but he seems really nice" Kat said.

"You know us girls," said Tanya, "suckers for bad boys."

"In your case, shy ones," added Kat.

"Oh, you wanna go there?" asked Tanya.

"Nonono, I was just kidding," said Kat, not wanting Tanya to bring up Tommy.

Sherry just laughed as she watched her two friends quarrel like that.

- - -

"You know Adam, I think we should call it quits for today, man" said Tommy, heading over to get his water bottle.

"Yeah, I'm with you there," said Adam, gasping for air.

Tommy had sparred with him for a while, and then Rocky took over while Tommy rested. When Rocky was through sparring, Tommy started on Adam again.

"You took it grand today, buddy" Rocky encouraged Adam as he went over to help them with their equipment.

"I just hope I'll be ready for the tournament" he said.

"Aww, don't worry about that man. You got this in the bag" said Tommy while patting Adam's back.

Rocky thought for a while, "Hey, have any of you seen Billy lately?"

Both Tommy and Adam looked at each other and shrugged.

Rocky continued, "Ever since we got our Zeo powers, I haven't really seen him."

"I know, we're used to seeing a lot more of him," Tommy said as he put his gym bag strap over his shoulder.

"Ever since the Alien Rangers left, he's been kinda distant" noted Rocky.

Adam then jumped in, "All I know is I need a shower before I faint."

The three of them laughed while heading to Tommy's jeep.

- - -

"I can't believe I bought so much, and didn't even cost me that much," said Sherry, while putting her bags into the trunk of Kat's car.

"I know what you mean, I feel everything's gonna come out irregular for the prices they had" said Tanya noticing everything she had bought for so little.

"Well, at least I came out satisfied" added Kat while she too was placing her bags in the trunk.

"Shoot, I would too if I got that cute guy's number" said Tanya.

"What did you say his name was again?" asked Sherry.

"Joel" answered Kat.

"What exactly happened though? Did you just go up to him and ask him for his number?" asked Sherry.

"No, I went over to ask him about the nail polishes. Then he asked me for my number so I gave it to him, then I got his."

"So are you gonna call him?" asked Tanya.

"I didn't get his number for nothing" responded Kat jokingly.

The girls just laughed while getting inside the car.


	2. Chapter II

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter II / Back to Basics**

"Oh man, I can't believe that Kat has a boyfriend." Rocky had a huge pile of papers on his arms having that one of his folders ripped while he walked down the halls of Angel Grove High with his best friend, Adam.

"Does Tommy know yet?" Adam asked.

"Don't know, Sherry just told me yesterday."

Adam shook his head not knowing how Tommy would react to this.

"But how?"

"Man, I hate to see _that_" he said as they made their way out the school.

- - -

"I can't believe that Kat's still not here yet" sighed Tanya.

"Umm, Tanya, it's only been a couple of minutes, don't worry about it" assured Tommy.

Tanya and Tommy were sitting at the Youth Center waiting for their friends to drop by so they could decide what to do that day.

At that, Kat walked in with a bright smile on her face.

"See, there you go." Tommy pointed in the direction of their friend.

"Hey" Tanya said as she turned to look at Kat who was now sitting down.

"Hey" she responded looking at both of them.

"Hi" Tommy said quickly before looking down at his drink.

"Isn't it nice outside? This weather reminds me of Australia" Kat asked her friends.

"Yup." Tanya said.

"So, what's with the cheery mood today? You're usually not as…perky?" asked Tommy.

"Well, I just got back from talking to Joel. He told me he'd pick me up in his motorcycle today to go out" she stated with a smile.

"I thought you weren't going out with him today?" Tanya asked her.

"I wasn't; but then I found out he was waiting for me outside the school to tell me that he was getting off early before he went to work." Kat said.

"Ahh, got yourself a boyfriend there?" Tommy asked in a smooth voice yet still afraid of what the answer might be.

"Yeah" Kat said shyly looking down and smiling.

"So…what's he like?" Tommy said mockingly yet hiding his frown.

"Uhh…he's older…and…"

"Cute, remember, _really_ cute" Tanya said jokingly making Kat smile at her while blushing.

"Oh" Tommy said before being very thankful that Tanya changed the subject.

"So, are you guys going to the expo next week?" she asked meaning him, Rocky, Adam, and Billy.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world," stated Tommy.

"A bunch of guys flipping each other around fighting…sounds like fun" Kat said sarcastically.

"Like if Joel doesn't like that?" Tanya said defending the guys.

"I don't know. We haven't really talked that much."

"Why? Are you too busy playing tongue hokey with him?"

"Tanya!" exclaimed Kat making her friends laugh.

"Oh come on Kat…don't deny the truth" Tommy told her trying to go along with the joke.

"No, we don't" Kat said seriously as she was too embarrassed to say anything else.

Tanya looked at Kat and Tommy as she witnessed the two gazing at each other and raised her eyebrows, "So, you guys got any plans for tonight?" she asked in Tommy's direction.

They both shook off the gaze and looked in her direction.

"I've got a date with Vanessa Miller" Tommy lied while looking at Kat's direction.

Tommy had been really taken off guard by Kat and Tanya talking about Kat's boyfriend. He somewhat felt jealous at the fact that Kat had gotten a date and is now dating this Joel guy.

Katherine looked at Tommy, yet hid her shock. "Joel said he'll be picking me up around six. He said he had a big surprise for me."

Tanya looked at the two again seeing their jealousy and evil in each other's eyes. She realized they were both trying to make one another jealous and succeeding at it.

Tanya again broke the silence, "Well, Adam said he'd meet us here with Rocky since Sherry is still at soccer practice."

Tommy was tired of talking about each other's personal lives even though the conversation hadn't gone that long, "I can't believe they're making them start soccer in the summer."

"Yeah, I know," said Kat, "they're going to practice all the way up until Thanksgiving break, since that's when the season starts."

"Well, it's a club team, I mean, they _have_ to be strict" said Tanya, defending the 'Las Cobras Soccer Club' team, "They'll get plenty of practice time between the games this summer."

Both Kat and Tommy nodded before hearing a familiar voice entering the juice bar.

"What's up guys!" Rocky yelled at the top of his lungs with a huge smile on his face.

The others just laughed at the sight of Adam quickening his pace towards their table while lowering his head down a bit.

"Cool it Rocko," stated Tommy, "a little louder and I think New York would be able to hear you."

"Man, it feels like the vacations are already here. Just one more day and _hello_ four day weekend." Rocky said with enthusiasm in his voice while going over and sitting down next to Tommy.

"Well," said Kat while getting up from her chair, "it's almost four, I have to get home."

"How come?" asked Rocky before he lifted up his left arm and sniffed his armpit while saying, "Do we offend?"

Kat just laughed and shook her head. "No, I have to get home and finish my homework before…"

"…before Joel picks you up right?" Tanya finished the sentence for her.

"Yup" Kat said before waving to her friends and made her way out the Juice Bar.

As soon as she had said 'yup', Rocky and Adam both looked in Tommy's direction but saw no sign of expression in it.

"I'll be right back," Tanya said as she got up and went to the restroom.

"So, what do you think about this Joel guy?" asked Rocky in Adam's direction.

"Well, I think…" started Tommy before getting cut off by Rocky.

"Oh no, I know what you think of him, trust me, we all know. I'm asking Adam."

Tommy gave him a look which was ignored by Rocky looking in Adam's direction waiting for an answer.

"Well, I honestly don't know the guy. I mean…"

"Oh please, don't pull that on me" Rocky said, "we don't like him because he hasn't shown his face yet. Come on Adam, it's fun to judge someone easily."

"Okay, okay," Adam giving in said, "I guess I won't like him for the simple fact that Tommy doesn't like him."

Rocky chuckled a bit at his comment before looking over at Tommy and waiting for a response.

Tommy, looking offended said, "Hey, I never said I didn't like the guy. I mean, just because he asked Kat out doesn't mean I'm mad or anything."

"Dude, just confess it, you like her" said Rocky.

"Adam, help me out" Tommy pleaded.

"Nah man, I'm gonna go with Rocky on this one."

Tommy looked down searching for words, yet none came to him. He didn't want to get into the subject at all although he knew that his friends would keep poking at the subject if he didn't give them a straight up answer.

"Okay, yeah I do like her. As a matter of fact, I like her a lot. I just never had the courage to ask her out."

Rocky, getting serious for the first time today said, "What are you so afraid of, rejection?"

All Adam could do was listen attentively as his friend spoke his feelings out for the first time that they all knew he had been keeping them hidden for a very long time.

"Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't worry so much if she wasn't a friend or a _ranger_ for that matter." He kept his voice low mentioning the word 'ranger'. "Besides, let's say she _did_ go out with me; there's still a possibility that it won't work out. What if we end up in bad terms?"

Rocky and Adam both looked at one another without having a word to say.

"But what does it matter now? She's with Joel, and it seems like she's hooked on him any ways. She'll never be like that for me."

Adam and Rocky were both stunned at their leader having such low self-confidence in himself. When it came to battles, Tommy was always true to the fights. He was the most confident person ever and for that earned the respect and discipline from the team.

When it came to Tommy's personal life, he wasn't confident or outgoing in his leads especially when it came to a close friend.

Now it was Adam's turn to talk, "You shouldn't think like that man. Yeah, Kat has a boyfriend now, but there's no guarantee that she'll stay with him. I mean, come on, he's a hardcore rocker guy. He drives a motorcycle, wears more jewelry than _she_ does, and is going nowhere with his job. Do you honestly think her dad will go for that? You know his approval has a lot to do in Kat's life. Either that or she'll have to say goodbye to all of his credit cards." Adam lied and took a shot at Joel's life.

"But Kat doesn't even shop that much. I mean, she does when there's something big, but other than that…ouch!" Rocky couldn't finish his statement from being stepped on by Adam.

Tommy looked at both of his friends and just grinned while shaking his head, "You guys are really something, you know that?"

The three boys started laughing as Tanya walked back to the table asking, "So, what are we gonna do tonight?"

- - -

Billy went into the west corridor of the Power Chamber reading a letter that he had received from Aquitar:

_Dearest Billy,_

_I hope this letter finds you in the best of health. I've been wishing that I could see you again before our departure to Lunar next week. I know that is impossible to do, but I really do believe that we can make this work my love._

_Delphine and I have been sparring for the leader position in this next quest. It has been so much fun watching the men around us as well as the women spar too. None of the women have been able to defeat me in a sparring competition without their powers._

_Billy there is so much helping me through those small fatiguing battles. It has been your love that makes life worth living the way I'm living it. Everyday that passes by I count the seconds when I will see you again. Trust me, my love, it will become reality when we both will be able to hold one another in each other's arms and hold on so tightly that neither of us would be able to breath. Oh how I do look forward to that day, Billy. I hope it comes sooner than we both expect._

_With much love in my heart,_

_Cestria_

Billy sighed deeply staring at the letter once more after his fifth time reading it. He then folded it in the manner that had been handed to him, and put it in his back pocket for safekeeping.

William 'Billy' Cranston was a teen genius. He was the original blue ranger of the Power Rangers, yet decided to give his Zeo Crystal to Tanya because he believed that he would be of more use to them in the Power Chamber. It turned out to be very true; Billy was one who really put the team ahead of the bad guys in the end with his wits. With being so intelligent, he was told to take a chance and graduate early. With great enthusiasm, he answered immediately, and it was a 'yes'. With all the extra time on his hands, he could finally start on all of the projects he had been working on for the rangers.

Billy went through the entrance and entered the medium sized holding unit to begin his work on his latest invention for the rangers. The Zeo Cannon had been long awaited from Billy to get his genius hands on continuation of it yet again.

Before he could even sit down though, there was a loud siren coming from the main chamber with turning lights, which flashed a bright, red and orange.

He turned quickly and ran towards where he knew the alarm was coming from. Getting to the door he stopped Alpha 5 from contacting the rangers.

"Don't Alpha, not yet. We have to see what the disturbance is first."

"Ay yai yai Billy," said the little robot with panic in his voice while stomping crazily on the hard light-blue floor, "What are we going to do?"

"First of all, we have to calm down" said Billy with ease in his voice while pressing buttons on the touch screen he had installed, "I'm going to locate the visual onto the disturbance to see what's troubling Angel Grove."

"CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING BILLY?" asked Zordon, the ranger's mentor with a loud deep voice.

"Well, at the moment, it seems that the cogs are disturbing Angel Grove park, but they don't seem to be harming anyone in their path."

"WE SHOULD CONTACT THE RANGERS AT ONCE," said Zordon.

"On my way, Zordon" said Alpha while going over to the consoles and paging the ranger's communicator's with a very familiar tone all too well known.

"I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can find what the cogs are doing there in the mean time" said Billy while going near the viewing globe and fixing a couple of small glitches.

"GOOD IDEA BILLY" encouraged Zordon.

- - -

Tommy was walking to the parking lot where he had parked his red truck when the tone came up on his communicator. He paused and looked around his surroundings for a second before answering.

"This is Tommy, go ahead Alpha."

"Tommy, there is a disturbance in Angel Grove park. We need you to get there right away."

"Got it Alpha, Tommy out…" after ending the signal he got into stance and repeated yet again those infamous words, "It's morphin' time…Zeo Ranger Five, Red!"

- - -

Tanya, Rocky, and Adam were still at the Juice Bar when Adam received the signal.

The teens looked around suspiciously and went to a vacant part of the Juice Bar just beside the main doors.

"This is Adam, come in."

"ADAM, THERE IS A DISTURBANCE IN THE PARK. WE NEED YOU, ROCKY, AND TANYA TO HEAD OVER THERE QUICKLY" came Zordon's voice from the other end.

"What about Tommy and Kat?" asked Tanya.

"ALPHA IS CONTACTING TOMMY AS WE SPEAK, AS FOR KAT, SHE IS NOT RESPONDING HER COMMUNICATOR FOR REASONS UNKNOWN."

"Um, okay. We'll be right there, Zordon."

The three teens looked at each other suspiciously before Adam gave a nod to signal their morph.

"It's morphin' time…"

Tanya spoke loud and clear, "Zeo Ranger Two, Yellow"

Next it was Rocky's turn, "Zeo Ranger Three, Blue"

And last was Adam, "Zeo Ranger Four, Green"

The three morphed teens teleported to the park to help out their fellow civilians with Tommy arriving just a few seconds before.


	3. Chapter III

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter III / Guitava**

The four teens arrived at the park to fight off the Cogs, even though they weren't hurting any of the citizens.

Zeo Red spun a tornado kick against the Cog that was suspiciously holding a round device in its metal hands. Once the device hit the floor it disappeared.

Zeo Yellow ran up to a Cog who looked as if he was trying to get to a civilian. She first punched it in its back then dodged a hit coming towards her. She ducked once more, but this time sweeping the Cog's legs to make it fall.

Two other residents of Angel Grove were on the run by a Cog. Zeo Green went towards the three Cogs, which were chasing them. He then jumped as high as he could to catch two off guard and kicked them both at the same time on their abdomen area. He then saw the third charging at him and quickly pulled back a bit to get into stance.

The Cog went at Zeo Green at full force but was jolted down by Zeo Blue who spun a kick in his direction.

"Hey, thanks man" said Zeo Green.

"Don't mention it…Hee-Ya!" came from Zeo Blue as he kicked another Cog heading in their direction.

The fight lasted a good six to seven minutes before Zeo Pink showed up heading a flying kick in the direction of a Cog who seemed to have Zeo Yellow in trouble.

"Dang, good thing you showed up girl" said Zeo Yellow while getting up to her feet.

"I came as soon as I could," said Zeo Pink while turning around and punching another Cog on its metal face.

The four teens that had been there from the beginning of the fight were starting to get exhausted.

"Man, how long are these things going to keep appearing?" asked a tired Zeo Red to no one.

"I can't believe they just keep showing up" cried a worn out Zeo Blue.

Zeo Green was the next to speak, "Guys, the civilians are gone out of the park. I think it's time to give these Gogs a real beating."

"Right" a stern voice from Zeo Red said, "Everyone break out your Zeo Pistols now!"

"RIGHT!" they all said in unison.

The group reached aside their belts and retrieved their Zeo Pistols. All started shooting directly at the Cogs' chests, backs, legs, and arms. The Cogs started falling one by one before disappearing all together.

They all looked around for a second or two for reassurance that all Cogs had been defeated.

"Alright, that looks like the last of them. Let's head over to the Power Chamber to find out what that was all about," said their leader.

The five colored suits got side by side and teleported out of the park and into their Power Chamber.

- - -

At the Power Chamber, Billy was on the consoles scanning for the devise that the Cog had dropped. Alpha was trying to locate more Cogs in fear that there were others around the area. Zordon was locating the Rangers and their whereabouts; knowing that they were on their way to the Power Chamber.

The five teens arrived in bright Red, Pink, Yellow, Green, and Blue removing their helmets as the colors vanished. As soon as they got there, both Adam and Rocky went towards Zordon, Kat and Tanya went towards Alpha, and Tommy went towards Billy.

"What's going on with these goons, Zordon?" Rocky questioned his mentor.

"Yeah, it seems like they were just trying to make us tired or something" said Adam.

In the left side of the Power Chamber, Tanya helped Alpha scan the west side of Angel Grove, while Kat scanned the east side of Angel Grove.

Tommy went over to Billy and asked what was going on.

"I don't know, Tommy," said Billy, "it seems that the apparatus is there, but it is really hard to get a lock on it."

"Maybe I could go down there and find the gadget somehow."

"No, it's too risky, we don't know what it could do, or if it's even remotely dangerous. You guys just better keep a close eye on it down in the park. Stay close to the area, but not close to the device. Got it?"

"Got it, Billy."

He went over to Tanya and Kat. "Hey, did you guys find anything?"

"No, we can't seem to find any more trouble around Angel Grove," said Tanya.

"Maybe you broke that thing when the Cog dropped it" pondered Kat.

At that, Adam and Rocky went towards the three teens, "Yeah," said Rocky, "maybe when the Cogs left, Mondo found out his plan was ruined."

"Maybe…"said Tommy, "but Billy wants us to stay close to the area where the machine is. We're to keep a sharp eye on it, especially to see that no one gets near it."

The teens just nodded, before Adam thought, "But, how can we keep a sharp eye on it, if we can't even see it?"

"I guess we just don't let anyone get near ten feet of where it fell" said Tanya.

Again the group nodded.

"Alright guys, let's power down, and teleport to the park."

"RIGHT" came four voices.

- - -

"Okay men, this is the case…" Lt. Stone started to talk to his two-man crew before being interrupted by Skull.

"Finally, something to do! Lay it on us Lieuten…I mean, boss."

"Okay, can I finish a sentence without being interrupted?"

"Just did sir" said Bulk.

Lt. Stone looked at both of them as if he was thinking of firing them for the umpteenth time.

He shook his thoughts out of his head and spoke, "Okay men, this is the plan…"

"You already said that sir" corrected Bulk once more.

"Are you guys going to let me do this or what? You know, I could easily walk away from you two forever," he warned.

Bulk and Skull quickly straightened up and put their hands on their sides showing their understanding. They both hated not having anything to do and would do anything to get boredom out.

"Now, it was said that there were suspicious purse robberies in Angel Grove park."

"Alright, the park!" exclaimed Skull.

Bulk looked at Skull deeply before nudging him with his elbow.

"Oh, sorry" he said.

"Go on sir," said Bulk.

"Well, I'm placing you two to find any suspicious characters at the park."

"You can count on us sir" Bulk called out a sign of reassurance.

"See that I can" Lt. Stone said, with question in his voice.

"Alright, come on Skull, to the Patrol Bike!" he said with pride.

"Right Bulky, to the Patrol Bike!" echoed Skull.

As they stepped out of Lt. Stone's office, Lt. Stone shook his head while saying, "Patrol Bike…"

Out in the hallway going towards the exit, Skull was a bit confused about the mission. He wasn't sure if they were actually meant to do anything if they saw any weird activities going on.

"Bulky, on question."

"Urgh, what is it now numbskull?"

"Didn't Lt. Stone tell us he'd walk away from us forever?"

"Yeah?"

"So, why don't we just take it and leave. I mean, we're not getting paid at all for this man."

"Skull, that's because he's starting his own detective agency. If we stay with him, we'll get hired as detectives."

"Oh, and then what?"

Bulk closed his eyes before taking a deep breath, "Stay with me here…we stay with Lt. Stone for a while longer and he picks up his business, he'll see how loyal we are and he'll offer us jobs as detectives."

"Detectives" Skull repeated looking out into space.

"Detectives" Bulk said with the same tone.

He then came back into reality and Bulk grabbed Skull from his sky blue neck collar and pulled him out the door.

- - -

"You know my dear, every time you get an idea like this, it just makes me want to take you into the other room and…"

Queen Machina stopped talking when she heard a childish voice coming in through the main door towards the balcony.

"Hey dad, how are we gonna get the speakers up and running when Klank is just chatting away with Orbus?" said Prince Spocket, Mondo and Machina's son.

Mondo became very infuriated at the thought that Sprocket had to be taking charge of the condition while Klank was doing nothing at all.

"KLANK!" yelled an enraged Mondo, King of the Machine Empire.

Klank appeared moments after he had been called upon, bowing sheepishly in front of his king "Yes sire, how may I be of service to you sir?" he said in a high Irish-like accent.

"How dare you be chatting away while there is work to be done?" Mondo asked his meek servant.

"I was merely trying to locate all of the speakers, sir. Orbus was…"

"ARE YOU CALLING MY BOY A LIAR?"

"Yeah dad, that's exactly what he's calling me" encouraged Sprocket.

"Oh no sir…" said Klank.

"Love, you mustn't get too worked up. Remember, your oil will boil" his wife said.

Mondo took a deep breath and sighed, "You're right my dear, you're always right."

The queen, feeling satisfied with her husband's answer smiled slyly and chuckled a bit, "that's better."

"Klank, I want you to take a couple of four Cogs and have them look out the area while you set up with the main station for the speakers."

"Yes sir, right away" said Klank.

Klank quickly left the balcony with Orbus on his shoulder.

"Tell me, how can I find good help these days?" Mondo asked no one in particular.

- - -

Klank arrived at the Angel Grove Power Plant Center and set up his station for the speaker reception.

The Cogs were nearly a distraction for the rangers while the other Cogs set up the speakers around Angel Grove. They all sent the wires back to the spot that Klank was now in.

"I don't know why you let him talk to us like that" stated his small shoulder accomplice, Orbus.

"He's my sire Orbus, correction, our sire; we must abide by everything he says."

"Well, if I ever catch him talking to _me_ like that…"

"What, what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, I'm gonna let you give him a piece of our mind, that's all."

"Yes, that's what I thought. Now come on, no more jibber jabbing, we need to get everything up and running."

"Alright, alright, keep your metal pants on…"

While Klank and Orbus continued with the wiring of the speakers, the Cogs kept a look out on the area.

- - -

The five teens were at the park sitting at a nearby bench keeping vigil on the invisible device.

"So, what happened?" asked Tanya.

"I told you," said Kat, "my mom wouldn't let me go. She just kept asking what that noise was."

"So what you tell her?" inquired Rocky.

"Nothing really, I just told her that I didn't know what it was either."

"Smart move" Tanya told her sarcastically.

"Well, what would you have told her?"

"Uhh…let's see, it's an alarm, beeper, music watch, or maybe even that it's none of her business."

"Right" Kat said sarcastically too.

"Okay, maybe not that it wasn't any of her business, but the others would've worked."

"So" Kat said ignoring her friend making her get hit with a fake punch before laughing, "Tommy, did you have to break your date tonight?"

"Nah, I haven't called her yet. Besides, with being a ranger and all, it's really hard to keep a relationship going."

"That's a pessimistic thought" stated Adam.

"Hey, I'm just saying, I know what it's like. Remember Heather?"

"Yeah, boy was she hot!" exclaimed Rocky.

The group laughed at their friend then they all turned hearing a loud rumble of a motorcycle pull up to the park's parking.

"Oh no, not Bulk and Skull" thought Rocky out loud.

Tanya soon followed, "Why do I have the feeling they're going to get in trouble some how?"

"Because they always do" finished Kat.

The teens did nothing but sit there and look at Bulk and Skull get out of their black motorcycle and started pacing around as if on patrol of some sort.

"You know, those two really are something" Adam said to the group.

They all smiled while looking at them.

"You know" began Tommy, "Whatever anybody says about those two, they really _are _changing in a way."

Katherine smiled at the sight of the two ex-bullies, "Yeah, and they're changing into something good I hope."

"Girl, we _all_ hope that," said Tanya, with amusement in her voice.

The others laughed before they heard a huge loud non-stop beep sound coming from everywhere. They all just covered their ears tightly while looking around to see where the noise was coming from.

"Where's that coming from?" yelled Adam.

He got no answer. None of his friends could hear anything but a large, annoying ringing in their ears. Still with their hands covering their ears, they looked at one another still not knowing what to do.

Tommy signaled teleportation by pointing to his communicator and then pointing to the sky.

Katherine shook her head then pointed at Bulk and Skull.

The teens then got the hint of not teleporting right then and there because of caution of being caught by Bulk and Skull who were too holding their hands over their ears.

Tommy then pointed to a building nearby, and got the approval from the team by nods.

They ran to the near side building and teleported out to the Power Chamber.


	4. Chapter IV

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter IV / Guitava II**

The teens arrived at the Power Chamber moments after teleporting out of the park. As they arrived, they realized the noise was gone in the Power Chamber, yet there was still a large ringing in their ears.

"Guys, I've found Klank in a truck at the Power Plant. He's with Orbus and a monster they call Guitava. He sends loud, horrible sound waves from the guitar he holds in his claws. If we get rid of the speakers, there's still a chance his guitar could send waves from up to 1000 feet" said Billy to the group as soon as he saw them enter the Power Chamber.

"BILLY, IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT GUITAVA COULD SUCK UP EVERYTHING UP TO 50 FEET AS WELL. RANGERS, BE CAREFUL WITH THIS MONSTER; HE IS VERY DANGEROUS" explained Zordon.

Billy then noticed the rangers were looking at him very closely, yet not fully understanding why they had clueless expressions on their faces.

"Billy, we can't fully hear you, speak up man!" Rocky yelled once he saw Billy's mouth move but heard nothing come out.

"Billy, we can't hear you!" came a yell out of Katherine.

"What!" screamed Tommy.

Tanya just looked at Adam, and Adam just looked at Tanya before screaming, "What did he say!"

"Huh!" came from Tanya.

"ALPHA, IT SEEMS THE RANGERS CAN'T HEAR A WORD WE SAY. THE LOUD NOISE MUST HAVE DISTRUPTED THEIR HEARING TEMPORARILY; GET A WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

"BILLY, KEEP CHECKING THE CONSOLES FOR WORST BEHAVIOR OUT OF THIS MONSTER."

"On it Zordon" said Billy, while Alpha was typing up phrases to come up on the viewing globe for the rangers.

"Now rangers, I know you can't hear me, but just turn to look at the viewing globe" Alpha said as he pointed behind them.

The rangers all turned around as they saw: _RANGERS, GO TO THE POWER PLANT AND DESTROY THE MAIN STATION THAT KLANK IS CONTROLLING INSIDE A TRUCK. THEN HEAD TO DESTROY THE MONSTER, GUITAVA, BUT BE CAREFUL WITH HIS LOUD SOUND AND POWERFUL SUCTION._

The rangers, after reading the entire message, turned to Alpha, looked at each other and nodded.

"It's morphin' time!" said a loud Tommy.

Although none of his teammates could hear him, they recognized the stance and followed his lead.

"Zeo Ranger One, Pink!" said Katherine.

"Zeo Ranger Two, Yellow!" came out of Tanya.

"Zeo Ranger Three, Blue!" yelled Rocky.

"Zeo Ranger Four, Green!" Adam said.

"Zeo Ranger Five, Red!" finished Tommy.

The teens teleported out of the Power Chamber after morphing and headed to the Power Plant.

- - -

"What's going on!" yelled a desperate Skull.

"What's that loud sound!" screamed Bulk still pressing his palms against his ears tightly.

The two were going around in circles, until Skull got on the motorcycle and waved to Bulk to get on.

Bulk turned and saw his friend's gesture; he complied and did as he was instructed to.

Skull turned on the bike and headed out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going!" Bulk yelled to him.

Skull, not hearing his friend's yell, said nothing to him.

- - -

"I can't believe Guitava is doing nothing for us father!" whined a childish Sprocket.

"Patience my boy, he will have to do his work soon enough. I bet the rangers have found our device already," said a mood-less Mondo.

"But how are they going to be able to fight without hearing one another's instructions? Especially that sore leader of theirs; they're going to lose so easily without even putting up a challenge for us dad."

"Ah, the magic of being evil; son, you have to realize the easiness in getting rid of a couple of teenagers is easier than getting rid of Zedd and Rita."

"What ever happened to them father?"

"Oh, you know Rita, she called little old daddy to get her out of a jam again, and Vile, being the sap that he is; took her in along with that retched husband of hers."

"Would you ever turn your back on me daddy?"

"Of course not my boy, you are so much better and more useful than Rita is. I'd always take you in my son."

"Ah, dad" said Sprocket while going over and hugging his father.

"Now my boy, let's keep watching this ever so easy battle."

"Yeah, those power dorks don't stand a chance!"

- - -

The morphed rangers arrived at the Power Plant just as Guitava was getting tired and ready to leave to destroy some humans by hand.

"Ha! Finally you decide to show up Rangers!" he said as he began to charge at them.

The rangers got into stance and let their leader handle the monster.

Zeo Green went towards the truck where he saw Klank and Orbus in.

Zeo Blue, Yellow, and Pink started fighting off the Cogs.

"Hee Ya!" screamed Zeo Red as he went towards Guitava with his Sword.

Guitava also went at Zeo Red with his guitar, but instead of using his defense wave, he fought with it as a weapon.

The Cogs were fighting the three Zeo Rangers with not much prevail. Once Zeo Pink saw Zeo Yellow retrieve the Double-Clubs as her weapon to fight off the Cog a lot easier, she went ahead and got her Disc and destroyed the Cog she was fighting easily as well.

Zeo Blue was fighting two Cogs at once and noticed how easily the girls got rid of the Cogs. He claimed his Axes onto his hands and easily got rid of a Cog with one Axe and the other Cog with the other Axe.

As the three noticed there were no more Cogs to fight, they went ahead and charged towards their leader to help him with the monster.

Zeo Green took hold of the cords as he got next to the truck. At that, Klank kicked him off of the truck causing Zeo Green to fall backwards onto the floor.

Zeo Pink saw this action and went back to help her friend deciding the other two rangers could help their leader with Guitava for now.

She went towards the truck, but was struck by another Cog who had appeared along with three others. She turned and called out for help, but noticed that none of her friends could hear her.

The rangers were not only trying to fight off the Cogs, Klank, Guitava, and even Orbus; but they also had to fight off their non-hearing abilities. They all needed to look around to see if anyone needed help without sound being an issue by the still loud ringing going on around them.

Kat still had her Disc at hand so with that, she took a chance and flung it as powerful as she could. To her surprise, she saw three of the four Cogs go down with such a powerful strike. Zeo Pink saw her chance and while the others were too busy striving to get up, she finished off the fourth Cog that was still in front of her.

Zeo Green saw his friend and was about to go help her when he saw her handle her own very well. He then turned around and went towards Klank again, not knowing with certainty which angle he was going to hit him from.

Guitava had the three rangers working hard as well. He hit Zeo Red with his guitar before quickly turning and striking Zeo Blue with his cords. He then sucked in Zeo Yellow before she stuck out her clubs and struck him hard on his chest. He reluctantly let her go from his grip, yet still holding his guitar, hit her on the side before she could get away from him.

The Cogs were down, but not for long. Two of them got up after the fourth had been destroyed and went towards Zeo Pink quickly. She saw the two and again flung her Disc before doing a round spun kick in the direction of the other Cog getting off the floor.

The four Cogs were none at this point and Zeo Pink went ahead to help Zeo Green to see if he needed any help from her part.

As Zeo Blue went towards Guitavo once more, he got struck by his sharp claws. Zeo Yellow thought for a split second and decided to use her Zeo Pistol and called upon her Zeo Blade to put them together.

Zeo Red and Blue saw Zeo Yellow put her Double-Clubs away and started blasting at the monster with her Zeo Pistol.

They put away their weapons and also grabbed their Zeo Pistols along with their Zeo Blades to connect them. After firing at the monster, they would clout the monster with their blade.

Klank was not worried at all. He had been given a blaster from Mondo to take care of any disturbances that went along with disrupting his plans. Zeo Green made his way towards Klank, when all of a sudden he felt a fast swoosh pass just a foot away from his helmet. He turned to see Zeo Pink behind him and turned again towards inside the truck to find Zeo Pink's Disc destroying the station.

Klank jumped out of the truck when he saw what was going on before getting hit. Zeo Green witnessed him getting out and charged at him getting his Hatchets and hurting Klank on his back.

Zeo Pink turned around when she saw that Zeo Green had everything under control there. She went towards her other friends to help them.

While the others were fighting off the monster well with their Zeo Pistols and Zeo Blades, Zeo Pink put her Disc away and also got her Zeo Pistol and Zeo Blade.

She too then joined the fight against the massive monster while Zeo Yellow was slicing part of his side with her Blade, which was attached just above the Pistol.

Zeo Pink did not know of the monster's strength at the point of getting too close to him. She noticed the others not getting as close, but did not take it into consideration.

The others yelled at her not to get too close, but the loss of hearing didn't let her hear a word they were yelling at her.

She went towards him with her blade, but got sucked in quickly by the monster and got thrown thirty feet backwards by his guitar waves. She hit a wall so immensely hard that she couldn't find herself getting up off the floor from such a strong impact.

Zeo Red witnessed the hit but couldn't retreat now; he knew his friends needed him to finish this monster.

In the mean time, Klank had disappeared injured from Zeo Green's sight, but still remained in the area. Zeo Green couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't see how Klank could have gotten away from him so easily while he was just a couple of feet away from him while Klank led him on a short chase.

The monster still had the upper hand a bit. Although the station for the speakers had been destroyed, the Cogs were out of the picture, and Klank was nowhere to be found, the rangers still had to deal with this monster that they couldn't get so close to.

Zeo Green arrived at the scene just moments after Zeo Pink's fall. He took her hand and helped her up. She clasped her back as if in pain but still continued to run towards the battle with Zeo Green at her right side.

Once arrival upon the battle, Zeo Green, although putting his Hatchets away a moment ago while leaving Klank to be, also got his Zeo Pistol and Zeo Blade to combine them for much more strength.

Zeo Blue signaled to their leader to combine their individual weapons to make an even more powerful weapon, the Zeo Blaster. It is a combination of all of their Zeo Weapong together combining all of their powers into one powerful hit.

Their leader got the signal and signaled with his weapon to place them together. They did as they were told, and combined their weapons.

The monster didn't know what was coming towards him and he just stood there trying to figure out what Zeo Red was signaling to the others. Once they were quickly done with their combining of weapons, the monster heard a "FIRE!" come from the rangers' direction. He then saw a number of fast, rapid, glowing lights heading his way at full speed.

He closed his eyes shut before getting struck with such a blow that nearly destroyed him.

Klank was not too far away from the action and turned to Orbus.

"Ready my friend?" he asked Orbus in a devilish voice.

"You know it" came a small voice from the little robot.

"Well then" started Klank while getting Orbus off of his shoulder. He grabbed the chain falling from the small robot and started twirling him around as Orbus tucked his head inside his armored body. "Around and around and away we go!" Klank said as he let go of his companion and let him land on the almost shattered monster.

The small robot landed perfectly on Guitava's forearm and popped his head out of its body. He looked down and stuck out a small tube-like feature out of its mouth. He zapped the monster with lasers coming out of the tube, which made Guitava grow in a gigantic size compared to what he was before.

The rangers looked with awe as the monster grew. They didn't wait for him to keep growing size before they saw Zeo Red hold up his hand signaling to call their Zords.

They looked up and raised one hand as well as their leader. "WE NEED ZEO ZORD POWER, NOW!" they spoke in unison.

Five different Zords appeared for the rangers. They each got in to each of their Zords and combined them together to make a gigantic Zord to mimic the size of the monster's growth.

The rangers were each situated in each of their own provided seats.

"Alright guys, this is it" said Zeo Red as he sat down.

"WHAT!" came from the group.

"Huh" he said turning around.

"Tommy, just turn around and keep battling!" said Zeo Pink behind her helmet as she pointed to the front.

"No thanks, but maybe later!" Zeo Blue said.

"Oh, I think I already had some!" yelled Zeo Yellow.

"Um, guys, he's coming toward us!" screamed Zeo Green.

"WHAT!" came from the group again.

Zeo Green pointed towards the monster charging at their Zord.

The group turned towards the front and instantly grabbed on to their consoles as the monster hit them at full force.

The giant Zord swayed from side to side. The rangers also swayed with it before holding the controls and heading towards the monster.

Zeo Pink and Zeo Yellow, holding the arsenal with cannons and rockets, quickly took in their power to great consideration and fired at the monster causing him to draw back a couple of steps. This helped the rangers with regrouping themselves and getting into stance once more.

They all decided unanimously to stop talking because the still ringing in their ears was keeping them from fighting well.

Guitava went towards them once more, but this time the rangers were ready. Zeo Blue struck him with a strong kick before Zeo Green punched the large monster on its chest.

The monster this time fell back from such impacts but still had his guitar in hand. He drew his guitar into his hands and swiped at his cords strongly. Zeo Red at this blocked the shot with his strong defending wits.

The two cannon holders then struck the monster once more with their wise thoughts about targeting the creature greatly onto the chest.

With the strong shots the rangers gave the monster, he fell and blew a great amount of fire and smoke out of its body.

The five rangers looked down from the head of the Zord and noticed that it had been destroyed. They celebrated greatly at the thought that they had defeated the monster.

- - -

Back at the Power Chamber, Billy had finally gotten a good scan at the device and had found out that it was just used as a distraction for the other Cogs to place the speakers around town.

The rangers showed up after the fight was over holding their helmets in their palms once more.

"Can you guys hear already?" asked a concerned Billy as he saw his friends teleport into the Power Chamber.

"WHAT!" said the group.

Billy, Alpha, and even Zordon laughed at this. Billy just shook his head and called his friends over waving his hand towards his direction.

He then proceeded to type a message for them to be viewed on the viewing globe to tell them his findings about the devise; which were none at all.


	5. Chapter V

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter V / Soccer Game**

Thursday was a much better day for the rangers. After the ringing in their ears had gone down around Wednesday night for Adam, Kat, Rocky, and along with most of the civilians around Angel Grove; Tanya and Tommy still had a bit of ringing in their ears on Thursday morning.

When Tommy had gotten to lunch, he realized the ringing was gone although it's a different story on Tanya's part. The ringing had not gone down for her until sixth period. Nonetheless, she was happy it did.

The teens had all agreed to meet at the Youth Center to arrange plans for a small get together.

Sherry was the first one to arrive at the Youth Center, having no practice that afternoon.

She went over to the bar and said hello to Ernie placing her red and white bag next to the stool she was getting ready to sit on.

"Hey" came a polite voice from the bartender in front of her, "anything to drink, Sherry?"

"No thanks, I'm just waiting for the others…oh, you know what Ernie, on second thought, could you give me a Banana Kiwi smoothie please?"

Ernie was famous for his smoothies. He had gotten the idea about two years ago, and had the first ranger group try them out to see if they liked it. The teens instantly loved the drink, practically telling Ernie to keep up the good work. Since then, the plump short man has been making smoothies with great success ever since.

"One Banana Kiwi coming up" he said while turning around and getting to work on the order.

As Sherry saw Ernie get to work on her smoothie, she jumped a bit at the feel of someone coming behind her grabbing her waist.

Rocky was behind his girlfriend wrapping his arms around her slender body. "Hey beautiful" he told her as Sherry turned around and kissed him before smiling at him.

"Hey honey" she told him as she got up and turned around to give him a hug.

Sherry had to somewhat get on her toes a bit to kiss her boyfriend again. She was 5' 3"; very slender, petite, and tanned skin; a bit darker than Rocky. Her hair was a dark dyed black and she had her upper left ear pierced wearing a silver dumbbell on it connecting to the mid ear. Her eyes were a beautiful dark brown; the color being shared by her finger and toenails. She loved wearing earth colors especially greens and browns.

"Have you been here long babe?" he asked.

"No, I just got here" she told him while getting her bag and heading over to the groups' table, "I ordered a smoothie, you want one?"

"Yeah sure, get me a chocolate one" he said as he sat down.

"Alright" she turned around and took about three steps towards the bar.

She came back with her smoothie and sat down hard on the chair while letting out a sigh.

"I take it practice yesterday wasn't so easy huh?"

"No, it's just that they have us conditioning right now and the real games don't start until two weeks from now; which means they're gonna be bustin' our chops for another week with pure running and collecting speed with stamina before we get into any drills."

"Okay babe, you lost me at conditioning" said Rocky jokingly.

Sherry smiled at him before nudging him with her elbow playfully as Ernie arrived at their table with Rocky's smoothie.

"Thanks Ernie" said Rocky.

"No prob. Is there anything else I can get for you?" he asked his two best customers.

"Na', that's alright Ernie, we'll just wait for the others in the mean time."

"Alright, enjoy" he said as he turned around and headed behind the bar again.

"THANKS" they said in unison.

Adam and Tommy entered the Juice Bar a while later.

"I can't believe you man, everything you say has to be about Karate" Adam told Tommy as they were having yet another conversation about martial arts again started by Tommy.

"I can't help it; it's all I know in my short life of living."

They walked over to Rocky and Sherry who were still in conversation about soccer.

"What's up guys?" Tommy asked the two sitting down.

"Nothing much" answered Sherry.

The teens turned around to Ernie who was speaking to Tommy and Adam as he said, "Can I get you guys anything?"

"Um, sure" started Tommy, "How 'bout a soda for me and Adam man, you want anything?"

"Na' it's okay. I'm good," said Adam.

"Okay, that'll be one soda for me Ernie" Tommy told Ernie who was behind the counter getting the soda for Tommy.

"Alright, I'll be right there Tommy" he said as he turned around and headed towards the door for the counter.

"Oh don't worry, I got it Ernie" said Tommy as he got up to get the soda from Ernie.

"Rocky, doesn't Tommy just talk about martial arts and nothing else?" Adam asked Rocky trying to prove his point about Tommy's conversations.

"Well, yeah, what else do you want him to talk about? It's practically all he knows," he said sarcastically as he saw Tommy coming back with the soda in his hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, just because I talk about martial arts a lot, doesn't make me a dimwit. I know a lot of other subjects too. It's just that martial arts is my favorite."

"Alright, like what other subjects?" questioned Rocky.

"Okay, like…cars or music for instance. I wouldn't mind at getting in an argument about how pop music is trash and how metal rules the world," he said with confidence.

Adam, seeing their leader a little too confident wanted to take him down a notch by stating, "I bet talking about pretty pink things is on his list of favorites too."

Tommy looked at Adam knowing exactly what he was talking about and instantly turned red.

"That's the last time I tell you guys anything," he warned.

"Oh, come on Tommy, it was Adam. I for once kept my mouth shut" insisted Rocky.

"Yeah, well still, it was only a matter of time until _you_ said something."

"Wait, wait, wait, back up here, what's going on?" asked a very confused Sherry.

"Um, can you keep a secret?" Adam asked her.

"Yeah" she said very suspiciously towards him.

Tommy and Rocky quickly looked at Adam wide-eyed as if knowing exactly what Adam was going to say.

"Okay, well, Tommy likes…pink roses" he said.

The two boys sighed in relief.

"That's your big secret?" she asked Tommy.

"Well…yeah…I mean…don't you think guys shouldn't like that sort of stuff?" he asked, going along with the lie.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind if Rocky was a bit more sensitive…if that answers your question."

"Hey!" Rocky yelled.

The other two boys just laughed at where the conversation was getting into. Especially because it was at Rocky's expense.

"Yeah Rocky, be more sensitive, jeez" said Adam.

"Tisk, Tisk" Tommy said while shaking his head exaggeratedly, "I would have believed you more of a gentleman."

They continued to laugh at Rocky's cost.

"Don't worry sweetheart, come to think of it, I like you just the way you are" Sherry said, trying to defend Rocky at this point.

"Hey" they all heard a voice come from the side and saw that it was Kat's.

"HEY" they all said as if on cue, except for Sherry who added a "girl" after that. She went over and sat on Tommy's chair after he got up and provided his chair for her. He then went to the next table and got a chair for himself before he placed it next to hers and sat down.

"So, what's so funny?" she asked.

"Oh, Rocky and his sensitivity" said Sherry.

"What sensitivity?" asked Kat.

"Exactly!"

The two girls started laughing amongst themselves as Adam and Tommy just simply chuckled under their breath not wanting Rocky to see that they too were laughing at him yet again.

"Alright, alright, you'll see. One of these days, Sherry, I'm gonna awe you girl."

"What, are you finally going to shower?" came a voice from behind him.

Rocky quickly turned around and looked up to meet Tanya's eyes.

"Oh, I see you're with them huh, Tanya?"

"Of course, they're girls, if we don't stick together, who else is gonna fight for our rights?"

"Ummm, we're talking about how guys shouldn't really have to be sensitive. They're saying I'm not sensitive at all."

"You're not."

"Yeah, I know…wait a minute…I am…it's just…"

"You're trying to prove a point, right?"

"Yeah"

"So prove it. Show them you can be sensitive _and_ romantic."

"Aren't they the same thing?"

The girls just looked at one another before starting to laugh again.

Adam got up and offered Tanya his chair but she declined.

"No thanks, aren't we getting out of here already?"

"Well, where do you wanna go?" asked Tommy.

"I don't know, to the park?"

The group looked at one another and while Rocky shrugged, Sherry along with Kat nodded their heads, Adam said 'sure' while Tommy looked at everyone's expressions.

"So, it's settled then, let's go."

"What are we gonna do there?" asked Kat while getting up from her seat.

"I don't know, we'll figure that out when we get there, I guess" replied Tanya.

"I know, why don't we get a good game of soccer going?" Sherry asked the group as they were heading out the door.

"Yeah, that sounds cool" countered Adam.

"Oh no you don't" began Rocky, "last time we all played soccer together, you two alone beat us four to nothing. I'm not doing _that_ again."

"Why don't we play the boys against the girls?" asked Kat.

"Hey, there's something interesting. How 'bout it Adam, you won't have your partner in crime, but you'll still be playing the sport." Tommy asked him as they were now in the parking lot getting into Tommy's and Kat's vehicles.

"Okay, sure" he said, before yelling out, "Hey Sherry, you got the ball right?"

"Never leave home without it!"

- - -

The teens arrived at the park just moments later having it so close by to the Youth Center.

"I don't see why we couldn't walk over here," said Tanya, getting out of the convertible.

"Tell me about it, now I know why my parents are starting to say that teenagers are lazy" Rocky added, while jumping off of Tommy's truck.

They all headed towards the flat open area.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road" Rocky said while running out to the 'field'.

"Wait! We need goals first," said Tommy.

Adam went over to get two sticks while Sherry got another two sticks.

"What are those supposed to be?" questioned Kat.

"GOALS" they said with easiness.

The team shrugged it off not knowing what to say and they started their game. Sherry passed the ball to Kat who as soon as getting it, passed the ball to Tanya. Sherry ran forward signaling to get the ball to her. Tanya saw her friend and quickly passed it forward. Sherry received it and dribbled it for about six feet before coming across Rocky.

"What you gonna do now huh?" he asked while getting in a defensive stance.

"This" she said as she tapped the ball forward to her right and dummy-passed it to herself as she quickly sprinted after it. She continued on with the ball after leaving Rocky to wonder what she just had done.

Next was Tommy. He came up in front of her but she quickly saw Katherine on the left side of the 'field' keeping up with her. She passed it to Kat once more, being really glad that Kat stopped it this time.

Kat was about to pass it to Tanya again before she saw Rocky heading in Tanya's direction. She decided to dribble it a couple more feet until Adam got to her. He charged her quickly, stepping into the ball's front and getting the ball for his team.

Adam started dribbling the ball past Tanya but couldn't get past her because as soon as he was making a move, Kat had gotten beside him, taking away the ball and quickly kicking it towards Sherry's direction.

She opened her leg outwards letting the ball hit her on her inner right thigh causing it to fall straight down.

Tommy was in front of her and noticed from the corner of her eye that Tanya wasn't far behind. She passed it to the front in her northwest direction making Tanya sprint for the ball.

As Tanya was just about to kick it towards the goal, Rocky showed up a second before she did. He passed the ball in Tommy's direction. Kat anticipated the pass and intercepted the ball from the boys.

Tommy quickly leaped with one foot out at her without hesitation, getting the ball from Kat.

There was a small struggle for a while between the two because once one would get the ball, the other would quickly take it away.

Adam came to his friend's help behind him calling out for the ball. Tommy, recognizing the voice, the next time he had the ball, he quickly tapped it with his heal passing it to Adam.

Adam turned around, just to find Sherry there waiting upon his next move. He stepped on the ball then faked it to go to his left. Sherry knew this move all too well and just went for the tackle.

She swiftly took the ball away from Adam, before sprinting with it across Tommy. Rocky was waiting since he saw their pressure and cover failed; it was up for the balance to get the job done.

Sherry had Tanya to her right and Kat to her left as the three ran up 'field'. Rocky charged at Sherry before she passed it to Katherine. He then quickly charged at Kat, before she passed the ball back to Sherry.

Adam cam up behind Sherry, while Tommy was coming up on Kat's direction when she had the ball, she knew no one was covering Tanya so with the heel of her foot, passed it blindly to her.

Tanya again sprinted for the ball, this time kicking it softly to the front before dribbling while running with it towards the guys' goal.

Rocky turned around and started running after her, as did the others.

Tanya didn't wait until Rocky got to her; she shot a bullet at the goal making the guys squirm behind her.

The two girls behind her jumped with joy while going over to give their friend a hug of praise.

"Man, who would've thought they'd be tough?" Tommy thought out loud while panting a bit.

The other two were panting a bit as well.

Adam went up to them, and simply said, "Okay, we need a plan to get the ball past these girls."


	6. Chapter VI

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter VI / The Powerful Shade**

"Alright…alright…time out" Rocky said panting.

The other five were panting as well and were getting ready to start a new game of soccer after their first. Having the girls humiliating the boys six to three, Rocky didn't want to go through that again.

"I'm with Rocky, I'm tired" Kat said going over to the picnic table and sitting down next to Rocky.

"Fine, we winners could really use a break" Sherry said as she sat across from Katherine.

The girls laughed as the guys laughed mockingly going over to the picnic table as well.

Tanya sat next to Sherry and Tommy went over to sit next to Tanya. Adam laid down on the grass next to them under a tree for shade.

- - -

Up in the Machine Empire, King Mondo has set his plans on something other than destroying the rangers with a monster, but with darkness.

"Klank!" he yelled before seeing his council of Klank and Orbus in front of him in a matter of seconds.

"Yes your majesty" Klank said.

"Is the sun cover ready?"

"Yes your majesty, I was just on my way here to tell you."

"Very well, then, is it in place?"

"Yes your majesty."

"Good, I just hope Emperor Grumm doesn't come and ruin it all having that I haven't paid him for this yet."

"I'm sure he will not sire, you see, the payment has already been done."

"Really? Well, by whom?"

"Uhh…"

"Out with it Klank!"

"By your son your majesty. I'm sure Prince Gasket is trying to regain your approval."

"Is he still with that retched daughter of my enemy?"

"Yes sire, he is."

"Then no. I want you to pay my good-for-nothing son and tell him that I don't want anything to do with him!"

"Yes sire, as you please."

"Go forth and turn on the machine. I'm tired of all those humans spending so much time in the sun" the king of the Machine Empire said before calling back his servant, "and Klank, be sure to have NiteGlider ready for me by tomorrow night. _That _is your deadline."

"But sir, I have only began on the monster just two days ago, this takes time."

"Never mind that! I need him by tomorrow night or else!"

"Ah…yes your majesty. I'll get to it as soon as I set up the shield above Angel Grove."

- - -

"I'm hungry," Rocky said as he patted his stomach.

"Tell us something we _don't_ know" Tanya said making the others laugh.

As they were too busy talking, they didn't notice the day darken. They all just assumed it was a big cloud passing in front of the sun.

"So, many more days 'till the big game?" Tanya asked Sherry.

"Seventeen, and counting" Sherry said glumly.

"Come on Sherry, it's not _that_ far away" Kat assured her.

"Easy for _you_ to say" Sherry told her before getting cut off by Adam.

"What's that?" he asked being the only one to notice the darkness falling on them now as he was the only one laying down looking up.

They looked up towards where he was pointing and placed confused looks on their faces.

"What the hell is that?" Sherry said loudly getting up and not losing sight of the sky. She started panicking before Rocky came over to her and placed an arm around her shoulder.

"Let's go take you home babe" he told her as he looked at Tommy.

Tommy at this nodded his head and got his keys to his truck.

"Look Rocko, why don't you take Sherry home, I'll go in Kat's car" he told Rocky handing him the keys.

"Alright" Rocky said taking a too shocked Sherry from even saying goodbye to Tommy's truck.

The other teens gathered together, "I have a crazy feeling that this is Mondo's doing" Tommy told them as he again looked up at the sky.

The teens could see a dark black sheet hovering hundreds of feet above them. It was moving north slowly.

Tanya looked towards the right side and saw that the sheet was too far to get a glimpse of where it ended. She looked to its left and saw the same thing.

"I don't think this thing has a beginning point" she told the group who was too now realizing this.

"It has to" Tommy noted as he stepped forward, "we better let Billy know what's going on" he said before hearing a voice come out of his communicator.

"_Already ahead of you Tommy_" Billy's voice came in through the speaker.

"Billy, do you know what's going on?" Adam asked pointing his face in the direction of a now nearby communicator.

"No, not yet. Just teleport to the Power Chamber for now" he told them.

"Right Billy, Tommy out" Tommy said before looking at the others. He nodded his head and they all got the signal to teleport.

- - -

Rocky teleported into the Power Chamber a while later making the room light up a bit with a bright blue ray.

"Hey, what's up?" he said as he saw everyone in different locations scanning the object and checking what it was.

"Nothing much" Tommy said passing by Rocky with a medium-sized device."

Rocky quickly went towards where Katherine was scanning for unusual activity aside from the shield.

"Anything on that thing?" he asked her looking at her then at the screen she was looking at.

"I don't know. Billy is working on that" she told him not taking her eyes off of the screen.

- - -

"That's excellent Klank. Your monster is coming out of supreme quality" King Mondo complimented his servant knowing that it would probably make him move faster.

"Thank you sire, I first started thinking of the project about six weeks ago when…"

"Quiet Klank! If I had known you were going to give me your life story I would've never of told you anything!" King Mondo stated as he exited Klank's lab.

- - -

It was getting late and the rangers were now just sitting on the steps not knowing what to do.

"I can't believe this" Billy said as he was in front of the consoles.

"What Billy? Find anything?" Tommy asked him getting up from his spot.

"No…nothing."

"BILLY, I AM SURE THAT WHOEVER PLACED THAT SHIELD IN THE SKY IS GOING TO TURN UP SOON. I SUGGEST ALL OF YOU GO AND GET SOME REST" Zordon told his rangers.

"Zordon, how are we going to sleep with that thing hovering over our heads?" Katherine asked making her insecurities known.

"I SUGGEST YOU TRY YOUR BEST KATHERINE" Zordon said to the Pink Zeo Ranger.

"Come on Kat, we really _do_ need our rest" Tommy told her placing a hand over her shoulder, "who knows _what_ King Mondo has in store for us next."

Katherine nodded her head, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

With that said, they all teleported out of the Power Chamber to try and get some sleep.

- - -

Tanya turned in her bed as she tried to go to sleep, _How in the world am I gonna go to sleep with that damn Monster Alert siren going on non-stop?_

She sat up and looked around her room. The darkness of the shield blocking the moon as well was really making it hard for her to see anything in her room. She got up and made her way to her wall. She then flicked on the switch and turned to the bookshelf she had in her room.

_Hmmm…_she thought, _what am I in the mood for?_

- - -

Adam was fast asleep, as he was able to sleep with various loud noises around him. He knew that if he only concentrated and not paid any attention towards what was around him, he'd get to sleep fast.

His pale white room was now pitch black having that the shield was covering everything that could possibly come in sight.

- - -

In a white sub-urban home, Tommy was falling asleep, yet the sirens kept waking him up ever so often.

He decided he wasn't going to get any sleep whatsoever and got up. He carefully walked over to the light switch and yelped in pain before getting there. He knew he had hit his pinky toe on the far end of the bed and was limping towards the wall now.

"Damn it" he said as he looked down at his now red throbbing toe.

- - -

Billy began writing a letter to Cestria knowing that Alpha will help him yet again to mail it out to Aquitar.

As he stopped writing, he looked out in front of him and reminisced about his girlfriend and the first time he met her.

"_Alpha, see if you can contact Aquitar and see what's going on with this monster" Billy said motioning to Alpha._

"_Ai, yi, yi, Billy, he seems to be terrorizing more people across Angel Grove and sucking the lakes dry!" Alpha said, while pushing numerous buttons._

"_Wait Alpha, someone is coming through the globe!" he yelled with desperation._

"_Zordon" the woman said._

"_YES CESTRIA, I AM GLAD YOU COULD CONTACT US WHILE WE HAD NO SUCCESS IN CONTAING YOU" he responded._

"_Zordon, I am detecting the absence of…"_

"_YES, HE'S HERE ON EARTH"_

"_I was afraid of that…"_

"_CESTRIA, YOU MUST…"_

"_Yes Zordon, I'll get them water as soon as I can."_

_The transmission quickly ended with a humming of static with the emptiness of reception ending their conversation._

"_Who was that Zordon?" asked Billy._

"_THAT WAS CESTRIA…"_

_At that, a sparkle of bacteria-infested-looking bubbles appeared in the Command Center._

"_Zordon, I've got water for the rangers" she said as she teleported in._

"_Great" said Billy, "I'll call the others and have them take it to the pool."_

_Alpha went over to the consoles and teleported the children rangers to the Command Center._

"_Rangers" he said, "take these bottles over to the pool and help the alien rangers hydrate."_

_The kids did as they were told without asking any questions._

_Billy then turned to Cestria noticing the devise Billy and Alpha were working on for the creation of rain._

"_What is that?"_

_Billy went over to her and explained in detail what it was about, he then stated the minor glitches that were still to be made._

"_Oh?" she stated, "maybe I could be of some assistance?"_

"_Sure" he said, leading her to his unit._

_When they came out several minutes later, they noticed in the viewing globe that the children rangers were now in front of the alien rangers providing water for them._

"_I must go," said Cestria, "to keep an eye on things on Aquitar."_

_Billy and Alpha nodded, having Billy not even blink from the lock he had on Cestria's eyes._

_She winked and smiled at Billy, which made him smile back._

"_I hope I can see you again Billy" she said._

"_Likewise" he countered._

"_Until next time" she said motioning to Alpha and Zordon._

"_Goodbye Cestria" said Alpha._

_She then teleported out the same way she teleported in and with that left Billy still smiling._

"_Wow" he simply said, before adding, "Aquitians aren't necessarily shy are they?"_

- - -

In the far side of Angel Grove, Rocky was talking on the phone with a still very panicking Sherry.

"It's alright, look, just try to get some…_sleep_" he said before yawning out.

"_Rocky?_"

"Yeah" he said sleepily.

"_Baby, stay awake, please_."

"Fine. I _am_ awake."

"_But not for long. Rocky…just try to stay awake okay? I don't know what I'm gonna do if you fall asleep_."

"Okay, don't worry…I…_won't_" again he yawned.

- - -

Katherine was pacing around in her lit room not knowing what to expect. She began biting her fingernails before she forcibly stopped herself in the process. Thinking about Mondo, the Cogs, and having the monster alerts around was something she knew she couldn't bare.

She thought for a moment about going over to Tanya's room and waking her up. She stopped herself yet again not knowing if the yellow ranger would be awake or not.

Katherine then decided to go down to the living room and watch TV. She opened the door to her room and saw that the house was a horrifically black hole. Absolutely nothing could be seen but the light that the light from her room provided.

She began to walk over to the staircase when she looked towards her right to her friend's room. She looked down and saw a line of light at the bottom of the door. She instantly took two quick steps in the door's direction and knocked gently.

- - -

Sprocket walked over to the refrigerator and took out his midnight meal like usual. Instead of eating it in the kitchen like he always did, he decided to go to the balcony and eat it there, as he wanted to look down at the rangers.

As he arrived, he set his plate down on a nearby table and walked over a couple of feet towards the end of the balcony. He looked down on Earth and realized that nothing could be seen down there. It was so incredibly dark that it just wasn't possible to see anything at all.

"Hmm…" he pondered, "how's dad gonna see if the rangers are defeated or not?" he asked out to no one.

- - -

Skull headed towards his garage slowly. He carried a white water pipe on top of his head as he looked around suspiciously.

"Goldar? Rito?" he asked out wanting the monsters to answer him.

He opened the door to his garage and saw nothing there.

"Come on guys, this is no time to be playing any games" he said as his voice broke from the fear he held.

"Guys?" he asked out again having no answer.

He turned around and ran into the house. As soon as he caught his breath and secured the locks to the house securely, he headed to the telephone where he dialed a very familiar number.

"Bulk, Rito and Goldar are gone man!" he told his friend over the phone.

"_No they're not. They're here with me_" Bulk said half asleep.

"But…but…why? I wanted them to sleep in _my_ room" Skull said before realizing what he just had told his friend.

"_You mean to tell me that you wanted them to sleep with you for protection?_" Bulk asked somewhat laughing at him.

"Umm…" Skull said after a while, "no…of course not. I'm not scared. I just…wanted to…uh…see if they were alright, that's all" he told Bulk not wanting to show any fear.

Bulk at this sneered, "_Well, they're fine. Now go to sleep_."

Bulk hung up on his friend and looked at the sleeping monsters in his room. He heard a small crack, which made him jump and run towards the monsters to get in between them again before falling asleep again.


	7. Chapter VII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter VII / A Cog for Tanya**

The next morning did not look like a morning at all. The streetlights were still on. The roads were quiet and empty. Everyone was to stay in doors until the monster alert siren was gone.

In the Oliver household, the family was around the table having breakfast. Tommy, his adoptive mother and father were chatting about the events of last night.

Tommy looked over at the television that was on all night because his parents wanted to know what was going on in Angel Grove.

- - -

Billy was now in the Power Chamber knowing that he had to do everything he could to figure out how to get rid of this shield.

"Alpha" he said walking over to the little robot, "is this shield stopping our communication systems as well?"

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND BILLY?" Zordon asked.

"Well, I know we can contact the rangers, but can we contact Aquitar?"

"That's a great idea Billy! I'm sure the Aquitar rangers will have no problem with helping us," Alpha said excitedly before going over and pressing buttons. "Oh dear" he said after a few seconds.

"What is it Alpha?" Billy asked.

"IT SEEMS THAT THERE _IS_ SOME KIND OF FORCE SHIELD NOT LETTING US CONTACT ANYONE FROM THE OUTSIDE." Zordon stated what Billy was dreading.

- - -

Adam walked over to the bathroom with a towel over his shoulder yawning from his good night's sleep and opened the door to his bathroom before hearing the television newscast making him turn around and take a seat.

- - -

Rocky could be seen still asleep with the receiver on his hand as he snored. He had just fallen asleep a couple hours ago from trying to stay awake with Sherry. He didn't succeed, but tried his hardest in doing so.

His little sister walked into the room and looked at her brother. She saw how tired he was and instead of messing with him like she planned to do, she instead got the phone, and placed it in its respectful place, before covering him with his blanket.

- - -

In the Hillard house, Tanya was downstairs watching the news, as Katherine came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her hair over her head.

"Kat, come look at this" Tanya said turning around after hearing her friend close the bathroom door.

"Hold, on" Kat said before she heard her friend again.

"No now…you really need to see this."

Katherine raced downstairs holding the towel steady and her bathrobe closed. She sat down next to Tanya in front of the television to hear the news as well.

"A number of robberies have been called in during last night's event. The shield blocking our sun is still up and yet there is still no sign of the Power Rangers…"

The girls at this both looked at one another before shaking their heads knowing that they knew nothing could be done and didn't understand how people could just ask for them not even knowing about the situation at hand.

"…alerts have been going around throughout the city."

At that, a black car rushed across the street. The girls saw the car through the window and looked at each other. They both began to get up but two seconds later they saw a police car with its siren on race across the street in the same direction making both girls sit back down and continue watching the news.

"Police advice citizens of Angel Grove to remain in doors unless it is absolutely necessary..."

- - -

"Klank!" Mondo called on his servant.

"Yes sire?"

"Have you got that monster ready for me?"

"Uh…no sire…but…"

"What are you waiting for?"

"Umm…perhaps sending down the Cogs would be a better idea. Tiring the rangers out before a battle could come out to be quite successful before the monster."

"Ah yes, tire them out. Not bad Klank; I _knew _I hired you for a reason." Mondo said before calling on his son, "Sprocket my boy!"

"Yeah dad?" Sprocket said coming into the room a while later.

"I've just had a wonderful idea," Mondo said with pride.

"What is it dad?" Sprocket said with enthusiasm filling his voice.

"How would you like to tire out the rangers before my monster is ready?"

"Gee dad, I'd love to!" Sprocket said as he began clapping his little short hands.

"Fine, go and send out a swarm of Cogs down to Angel Grove. I bet those power rangers will not be expecting _that_."

"Great!" Sprocket said running over to the door, "You always come up with the best ideas."

Klank at this bowed to his king and turned around heading into his lab.

- - -

The news anchor touched his ear and looked out into space without saying anything for three seconds.

"Looks like he's getting bad news" Tanya noticed.

"I've just been told that we're going to go back to your scheduled programming. You'll hear from us again once we've got more news for you" the anchorman finished before the screen changing to a Wendy's commercial.

"I'm gonna go get dressed" Kat said as the commercial came on.

"Alright, I'm gonna go take a shower" Tanya got up off the couch.

Both girls made their ways up the stairs. Katherine walked into her room and Tanya into hers.

- - -

Adam began rinsing his hair again from shampooing it. _Hm_, he thought, _I wonder what I'd look like with longer hair_.

- - -

Rocky was still asleep turning to his right and getting comfortable again.

- - -

Tommy was now sitting on his bed listening to classic rock.

- - -

Billy looked at the viewing globe after he heard the alarms go off.

"Alpha" he said, "contact the rangers. The Cogs are on a rampage."

"Right away Billy" Alpha said not needing to be told twice and pushing buttons right away.

A few moments later, Billy saw the five Zeo rangers fighting off the Cogs through the viewing globe having a bit of stinging in his stomach from wanting to be there.

- - -

The five Zeo Rangers were at a construction site where the Cogs had appeared.

"Zeek! Ah-ya!" Zeo Red yelled as he kicked a Cog on the side and jumped back to defend himself from another coming toward him.

Zeo Green span around after taking a strong blow to the head. "Ah!" he yelled as he hit the ground. He got up quickly and kicked the Cog on the stomach before kicking it once more before it hit the ground.

Two Cogs charged at Zeo Yellow at once. She ran up a ladder and onto a stack of large sheets of wood. She saw the other two Cogs were now climbing the ladder, one after the other. She kicked the latter away and made it tilt causing the two Cogs to fall to the side where they broke and disappeared. She then jumped off and began yet another small battle with another Cog.

Zeo Blue took a long 2x4 and swung it towards his left. In the process, causing five Cogs to go down easily. He threw it to the side where it hit two Cogs at once and made them go flying backward.

Zeo Pink was trying to fend off three Cogs at once. She kicked the first one coming at her causing it to fly back and hit the one behind it. The other came up to her and shot out two laser beams from its eyes. She was pulled back by someone just barely dodging the lasers from hitting her helmet.

"Whoa! You alright?" Zeo Red asked her as they both got up.

"Yeah" she said before going back and punching the Cog that was closing itself.

"Just a couple more" Zeo Green said to no one as he looked around and didn't see that many Cogs around.

"Ugh!" Zeo Yellow groaned as a Cog punched her in the stomach. She crossed her hands in front of her as she bent forward.

Behind her, Zeo Green had seen what happened, and came rushing towards her. He hit the Cog by punching it and kicking it right after.

"Are you okay?" he questioned Zeo Yellow as he turned to her and held her.

"I'll be fine," she said before looking at another Cog come behind Zeo Green with its face uncovered to reveal the laser guns pointing at him. She pushed him to the side and took the hit making her fly to the side as it crashed against her chest.

"Tanya!" Zeo Green yelled when he realized what had happened. He quickly drew out his Zeo Pistol and began shooting at the Cog endlessly until Zeo Blue came over to him.

"Adam stop! He's gone," he said as he saw his friend putting his pistol back and lowering his head just staring at the spot where the Cog had been.

He turned around and saw Zeo Red fighting off the last two Cogs. He turned to see where Tanya was and saw that Zeo Pink was helping her up. He ran towards her to help her.

"Tanya, we should take you to the Power Chamber" he told her as he too began to pick her up slowly.

"Yeah, okay" she said in pain.

- - -

"Daddy" Sprocket said as he entered the balcony.

"Yes my boy?"

"Umm dad, our radar detects that the Cogs have all been destroyed" he told his father in a disappointed tone.

"Oh, don't worry Sprocket, there will be plenty of time in the day to send out more Cogs after those fools."

"Your majesty" Klank entered the balcony as well, "I'm don't with the monster sire."

"Done? Already?"

"Yes your grace. Do you want to see him?"

"Yes, send him in here" Mondo demanded.

"Right away sire," Klank said as he turned around and went to call on his creation.

- - -

"Talk about Cogs needing a hug" Rocky said, his puffy eyes being looked at by the others.

"Are you gonna go home Adam…and wash your hair?" Katherine told him as she noticed Adam's hair still had a couple of foamy bubbles in it.

"I wish I could, I just don't wanna leave Tanya like this" he said motioning towards the bed in the center of the Power Chamber.

"She'll be fine Adam" Tommy told his friend and he turned towards Rocky. "You should get some sleep Rocky."

"Yeah" Rocky said as he walked towards Adam. "Tommy's right. Just go home, finish your shower, rest, and come back when you've calmed down."

"We'll call you if something happens" Kat said rubbing Adams back.

"I can't. I just can't leave her here like this just to go take a shower."

"Adam" Tommy spoke out; "It's not just the shower man. You're heated up right now. There's no telling what you'll do if you keep looking at her like this."

"Yeah" Rocky conquered, "you should just cool off for a couple of hours and come back. I'm sure she'll be fine by then."

Adam looked at the team then took a long look at a resting Tanya. He lowered his head and sighed as a just audible, "Alright" came out of his mouth.

"Good" Kat told his smiling.

"Come on" Rocky told him before they both teleported out.

Katherine walked over to the bed and looked down at her friend. She had sadness in her that was not hard to pick up on.

"Hey" Tommy told her gently, "she's gonna be alright."

Katherine turned to look at Tommy and looked down before closing her eyes. Streams of salty tears fell from her eyes down to her cheeks and kept running down until they either segregated from her skin and fell to the floor or kept running down to her neck.

Tommy instantly upon seeing the first drop escape through her eyelashes stepped forward and pulled her in to a tight hug. He wrapped his strong muscular arms around her as he soothed her back and allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder as she sobbed quietly.


	8. Chapter VIII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter VIII / Darkness**

Tanya ran up the stairs and into her room with Katherine not far behind her.

"Come on Tanya!" Kat yelled at her from the other side of the door.

"What?" Tanya yelled back pretending not to have heard her friend.

"Tanya!" Kat yelled again before pretending to give up, "fine, you don't wanna take it…then I won't force you!"

Tanya heard nothing but silence for a while until a bright pink glow brightened her room. She turned around only to instantly cover her eyes from the stinging the light gave them.

"You teleported in?" she asked Kat with amazement.

"Why are you so shocked?" Kat asked her as she approached her friend with the syringe.

"You're not suppose to teleport unless it's ranger business."

"This _was_ ranger business" she said before yelling, "Look, it's Adam!" Kat pointed in Tanya's opposite direction making her turn around swiftly.

"Where?"

"Here" Kat said as she was glad that Tanya's blouse was sleeveless. She injected Tanya with the syringe knowing that she didn't have any time to disinfect the area because Tanya would do anything to get out of a shot.

"Ow!" Tanya yelled as she turned and noticed that Kat was pushing in the barrel of the syringe with medicine into her arm.

"You need it" she told her as she pulled out the needle quickly.

"Damn" Tanya said as she rubbed the area.

"No don't…Billy said not to do that, it could cause irritation. Here" she told her as she massaged her arm with a cotton swab. Billy had given her detailed instructions as to how to inject Tanya with the medication to keep her painless for the rest of the day.

"Guess he doesn't want me to feel anything at all…starting with my arm."

"Oh come on Tanya…it's not _that_ bad. Besides, we're gonna need you in battle" she told her going to the trash and throwing away the cotton swab and covered syringe.

Tanya sighed and walked over to her bed where she sunk in deeply after throwing herself backward on it.

"Tired?" asked a concerned Kat.

"Nah…it was an emotional sigh, not a tired sigh."

"What do you mean by _that_?" Kat went over to the bed and laid next to her friend.

"Adam" Tanya said looking at the ceiling as if in a trance.

Kat looked up as well in a trance of her own. "He was really worried about you."

"Yeah, I heard him."

"Awwww" Kat said jokingly making her friend turn toward her and hit her on the head with her yellow throw pillow making Kat laugh and squirm.

"Hey, how was the exercise today?" Tanya asked Kat wanting to change the subject.

This indeed changed it and made Kat let out a huge moan of disgust, "Horrible" she said hitting Tanya with the pillow softly as she gave it back to her.

"Really? How many times?"

"Six…and counting."

"Six times?"

"Yup…I just hope Mondo is running out of Cogs."

"Well, at least you guys kept destroying them."

"Yeah, sad thing is though, we're all exhausted" she said before yawning.

"I hear ya" Tanya said sighing and turning to Kat while smiling.

Katherine looked at Tanya and squinted her eyes, "You've been asleep all day!"

Tanya let out a burst of hysterical laughter making Kat turn on her side and fake punch her friend on the side of her stomach.

- - -

Having it be four-thirty in the morning, Mondo walked up to Klank's lab. "It's time" he told Klank as Klank was again fixing the monster.

"Uh, ah, but sire…" Klank started following Mondo, "NiteGlider isn't quite finished yet sir."

"I thought you told me that he was done…"

"Yes, I did sir, but you see, there's a small problem with the way I assemble him. You see sir…"

"Quiet Klank! Just send him down there!"

"But sire, if the shield is destroyed…"

"Nonsense, that shield cannot be destroyed at all. Now…go get NiteGlider."

"But your grace…"

"Now!"

Klank after hearing the commands quickly turned around and ran back into his lab.

- - -

Billy walked through the Power Chamber to the back.

"Finally" he told himself, "I could finish the Zeo Cannon."

He sat down on his lab chair and took a screwdriver from his nearby toolbox. Billy let out a long sigh before getting his head into his work once again.

After a short while, he let his mind drift off. He knew he shouldn't since he was welding the Zeo Cannon shut. Billy couldn't help but think back…

_Billy walked into the Juice Bar in his regular dark grey sweater and black jeans. He looked around for a bit at the party his friends and Ernie had put together for his early graduation. Billy began to talk to Tommy, Kat, and Rocky before Skull came into the Youth Center practically running his way._

"_Billy!" he yelled, "I'm glad I found you, come this way man!" he told him as he grasped Billy by his left arm and pulled him out to Ernie's Outdoor Café._

_The others just looked at him with questioning looks and them to each other. They knew Billy could take care of himself so they just decided to stay where they were._

"_Skull, what are you doing?" Billy asked, still a bit confused at being dragged out of the Youth Center by a compulsive Skull._

"_This is the only Billy we know!" Bulk told a figure standing out of sight's way near some plants. He nodded._

_Upon seeing him, Billy quickly recognized him as being the blue ranger of the Alien Rangers Cestro._

"_Cestro, what are you doing here?" he asked._

_"Billy I've come for you…"_

Billy's thoughts were broken as he heard the alarms in the Power Chamber go off. He again quickly stood and ran towards the main room.

"Alpha, what is it?" Billy told the small robot that was already pressing buttons on the consoles.

"It's a powerful source of energy" Alpha told him as he remained pressing the buttons uncontrollably.

Billy walked over to the scanner before being stopped by Zordon, "BILLY" he spoke, "SEND ME THE INFORMATION OF THIS MONSTER."

"Right Zordon" Billy said changing his path towards another.

"ALPHA, CONTACT THE RANGERS AT ONCE."

- - -

Five colored streaks shone through the Power Chamber.

"What's up Alpha, what's going on?" Rocky asked non-hesitantly as they arrived.

"RANGERS" Zordon spoke quickly, "YOU MUST GO DOWN TO THE MIDDLE OF MAIN ST AND AVENUE. NITEGLIDER IS DESTROYING THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS THERE. IN FACT, HE'S DESTROYING EVERY LIGHT THAT SHINES THROUGHOUT THE CITY. MY SENSORS DETECT HE HAS NIGHT VISION. RANGERS, THIS WILL BE BY FAR YOUR MOST DANGEROUS MISSION UP TO DATE."

"Great, just great" Tanya said under her breath.

"RANGERS, MY SENSORS DETECT A VULNERABILITY" Zordon said making the rangers take a step forward in wanting to know what it was.

"Light right?" Rocky stated making the others look at him, "Why else would he be getting rid of all the lights."

"To destroy us?" Kat told him sarcastically, "He knows we can't see in the darkness. Especially with the helmets; it's like wearing sunglasses at night."

Billy thought about this and knew she was right.

"NATURAL SUNLIGHT IS WHAT WILL DESTROY HIM" Zordon spoke.

"But, if the sun is being blocked" Tommy said wanting to know more.

"We have to get down there," Tanya said to their leader.

"Yeah, before he breaks any more lights" Adam said motioning with his head toward the viewing globe.

In the viewing globe, NiteGlider could be seen running from one light to the other quickly and breaking it with its bare hands.

"Whoa" Rocky said what was on everyone's minds.

"Guys, you better go down there without your helmets" Billy pointed out what he was thinking the whole time while the others were talking about NiteGlider and his vulnerabilities.

"What?" Tanya said in disbelief.

"Huh" Rocky said with the same tone.

"No way man" Tommy stated defensively.

"But we can't" Adam told him as well.

They all spoke at the same time making Billy close his eyes and speak, "You have to. You won't be able to see a thing."

"This is crazy," Tommy said looking out around the Power Chamber.

"You won't be seen. Most of Angel Grove is in their homes and it's too dark out for them to see who you are." Billy tried to reassure the team.

They all looked at one another and sighed. "Fine" they said before Tommy looked back at Zordon.

"How are we gonna get rid of the shield?" he asked his mentor.

"BILLY AND ALPHA HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THAT FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF HOURS. WE WILL CONTACT YOU WITH INFORMATION AS SOON AS WE GET IT."

"Alright" Tommy said before turning to look at this team, "It's morphin' time!" he yelled after he saw everyone in stance ready for his words.

- - -

The rangers appeared morphed without their helmets in said location. They looked around through the dark streets and notices no life form anywhere.

"Let's just keep our eyes open" Tommy told them as they all began to walk forward slowly and cautiously.

"Um…where is he?" Tanya asked out not hearing anything that could be sounds of breaking glass from the lights they had seen the monster breaking in a matter of seconds.

"I don't know" Rocky said as he squinted he noticed that his eyes were opening greatly to try to see through the darkness that surrounded all of the Zeo Team.

"I think we should walk a little faster. He should be far off in the distance by now" Kat noted before Tommy turned towards her.

"We should, but then we'd lose our concentration. He might sneak up on us." Tommy told her as he noticed that he having Katherine be the lightest one of the group, not even _she_ could be seen properly. He wondered how they were going to see the dark monster.

"What if we walk towards the lights. I mean, he'd follow us don't you guys think?" Adam asked the group thinking that if they got near the lights, the monster would indeed follow them.

"That's a good idea," Tanya said putting her two cents in.

The team remained walking slowly, as their voices as well remained low.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Kat asked getting restless of just taking small steps.

"I don't know, just keep walking" Tommy told her as he took her hand and pulled her toward him.

"Do you think if we call on the zords and built the zeo zord, we can break the sheet with the sword?" Rocky wondered. His only thought now was wanting to see what was going on around him perfectly instead of black shadow figures.

"Billy said that he did the math. The Zord would be too short, even with the sword. And shooting it is out of the question." Tommy told them as he looked from side to side and at times looked behind him as well.

"Why's that?" Kat asked him as she squeezed his hand a bit at getting frustrated that they still couldn't see clearly.

"The lasers wouldn't shoot out that far."

"What about our zeo bullets?" Adam asked.

"He said they'd come right back down. It's too far up. The bullets could hit someone on their way down."

The team nodded, but they would just as well not because not even an aggressive nod could be seen unless one was looking directly at them.

As they stepped a couple more feet, they could hear the breaking of several more lights very far off in the distance.

"You hear that?" Tanya asked the team making them all stop walking and listen for what she heard.

"It's him," Kat said making the others look in the direction that they thought the sound was coming from.

"Let's go!" Tommy yelled as he began to run not letting go of Kat's hand.

They all followed, running, into what they didn't know they were getting into.


	9. Chapter IX

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter IX / NiteGlider**

The rangers kept running as fast as they could. The streets were empty, and they knew that they didn't have to look out for any cars coming their way, so they focused on what was in front of them as they continued to sprint.

Katherine was scared of tripping over Tommy's foot, which kept getting in her way so she let pulled her hand out of his grasp and moved towards her left, right next to Tanya.

Rocky's upper thighs for giving up. They began to burn intensely as he pushed himself more and more to keep up with everyone else. What he didn't know was that everyone else was feeling the same way.

Adam's feet kept running as fast as he could. His arms were helping him push himself forward as he felt himself wanting to slow down.

The rangers kept running for a great distance until they all somehow started slowing down. They had been sprinting for thirteen straight blocks before they didn't notice who was the one who slowed down, but the rest had followed.

They all looked around panting heavily as they all tried to catch their breaths.

"Does anyone…see anything?" Tommy said in between gasps of air.

"It looks…like we…ran…in the…wrong direction" Kat noted as she saw far out in the distance that there were a number of broken lights towards their left.

Everyone although not being seen, all rolled their eyes from running carelessly.

"Damn" Rocky noted as he looked down with his hands on his sides still panting.

"I can't…believe this" Tanya said looking up at nothing.

The team gave each other and themselves a rather long moment to regain strength and their breaths.

"Why don't we just take the Jet Cycles?" Adam said making the others look at him bewilderedly.

Nothing could be heard after that. Even the deep panting of the teens was no more. Everyone there was quiet as can be for not having thought of it before. None of them dared say anything for embarrassment of not saying anything of the Jet Cycles.

"Um" Tommy finally spoke up. He felt bad for being the leader and not finding every possible angle in the situation to defeat this monster. He couldn't even lead them to find him, much less destroy NiteGlider, "We should" was the only thing that came out of him. He didn't feel like saying anything else at that point.

The team agreed with Adam on calling for their bike. They all called on their Jet Cycles having them appear quickly for them. They began riding all around the nearby streets looking for NiteGlider.

The team drove around before Tommy spoke up loudly having the noise of the Jet Cycles drown his voice, "We should separate to take a better look at the city!"

The team heard him and did as they were told. Once they got to an intersection, the team broke up into three parts. Tanya followed Tommy as he took a sharp left turn. Rocky followed Katherine as she took a right turn. Adam decided to go his own way and kept heading straight. The rangers were sure to take extra precaution because neither of them was wearing their helmets. They knew that if one of them crashed the slightest bit, great damage would be done to them physically.

Tommy kept driving rapidly as he came upon either a right or left turn. He hesitated a bit before turning to his right. Tanya took a left turn and headed in her own direction thinking that it would be much quicker to find the culprit if they were to separate even more. Tommy noticed Tanya heading left as he turned right. He was going to take a U-turn, but held back when his mind told him to trust her judgement.

Rocky got in front of Katherine's Jet Cycle before heading to the left side of the street. She accelerated to catch up to him a bit and rode side by side with him straight ahead.

Adam kept going straight telling himself that it wouldn't be long now for them to find NiteGlider. They heard him a couple of minutes ago and knew that with the Jet Cycles, they were to find him now for sure.

Having no luck still in finding him, Tanya decided to stop the bike and take a good long listen for any noises that might sound suspicious. She turned of the Jet Cycle completely and closed her eyes. She first heard crickets as they rubbed their hind legs together making a high pitched sound. The next thing she heard was a barking dog. The owner silenced it before she continued to listen out attentively.

Katherine took a right turn upon the next intersect and drove for a good long distance before realizing that Rocky wasn't nearly by her. She groaned under her breath as she turned her head around to look for him while she slowed the cycle down. She turned back again guessing that he had taken another route and accelerated as she lowered her body down to get balance on the bike as she drove faster. She took a sharp right thinking that she saw a light going off in the far distance. Kat wasn't sure of what she saw, but had to check it out nonetheless.

Tommy kept turning his head and picking up his body from the bike as he tried to see over the houses. No sign of weird activity could be made out. He sat back down on the bike and accelerated even more before slowing down again and taking a left turn as the next stop sign came up. He drove straight ahead again standing on the Cycle's sidesteps and searching from side to side for lights being turned off. Again he saw nothing and got back down and accelerated again.

Rocky drove off quickly before taking a left turn. Adam had been driving straight the whole time and almost got hit by Rocky. Rocky didn't see Adam at all, but just missed the bike because he was going to fast on it. Adam felt Rocky's wind as he passed right in back of him and took a deep breath before realizing that he could have been flying a couple hundred feet by now if Rocky had hit him on the side. As Rocky noticed what had happened, he slowed the bike down and turned around. He made his way toward Adam.

"Hey, I don't think we should be driving around like this, one of us could crash. Maybe we should stick together!" Rocky yelled out to Adam as he caught up to him.

"You're right, you almost took me out man!"

"Yeah I know! I'm sorry 'bout that!"

Tanya heard nothing that could remotely be the sound of any breaking lights, so she decided to start up her bike again and head left on the next turn.

Katherine turned right after slowing down a bit. She knew she was driving too fast. Not wearing a helmet and not being able to see in the night was something she knew all too well was dangerous. It was especially even more dangerous having NiteGlider break the lights where she was now driving off to.

Tanya accelerated a bit more before hearing someone else's bike heading her way. She looked around her but noticed nothing in the sharp darkness. She didn't keep accelerating but kept her slow speed going forward on the street.

Kat slowed down her fast speed and just passed by Tanya without acknowledging that she was there. Yet Tanya had not fully stopped her bike yet and as she was passing the non-seen stop sign, felt her bike tap something in front of her. It was Katherine.

Katherine instantly felt her bike start swerving from side to side as she was hit on the rear tire from the right. She turned the tire to go to the right and make a sudden stop, though she didn't see the parked car in front of her. She made a strong impact with the car making her scream as she went flying towards to top of the car in front of the one she hit. The alarm instantly went off as a pink suited girl laid on top of it.

"Kat!" Tanya yelled for her friend as soon as she had realized what had happened. She turned the bike to her right and drove a bit before quickly getting off letting it fall on the street.

"Ow!" Kat moaned as she began to sit up on the top of the car.

"Are you alright?" Tanya asked as she got up on the car not caring that the owners might get mad.

"What happened?" Kat asked as she rubbed her arm before holding it tightly with her hand feeling the throbbing pain get even stronger now.

"I hit your back tire I think" Tanya said before she lifted her left upper wrist to her mouth, "Guys come in…this is Tanya. Kat had a nasty fall. We're on River St."

"_Where exactly are you guys Tanya?_" Tommy asked through the communicator where it could be heard that he was more anxious than anything. His bike could be heard quickly turning off to listen in.

"We're in front of the Jones' place. You know, that guy with all the gnomes in his front lawn?"

"_Yeah?_"

"Well, like two houses down."

"_Alright, don't move her. I'll be right there!_"

Kat closed her eyes tightly as she didn't want to remove her hand from it's resting spot. She was too scared of letting go and realizing that her arm was broken.

They both heard the loud roaring a motorcycle coming their way. Tommy knew he was doing way over ninety, but that didn't stop him. He came to a quick stop before he looked around and saw a flashing car.

"Over here!" Tanya yelled at him knowing that either way they could be seen from the car's lights going on and off. The loud sound would of course have given them away as well.

Tommy got off his bike and ran toward them. "What's wrong? Is she okay? Is she breathing?"

"I'm fine" Katherine told him, her voice breaking.

"What hurts" he asked her going towards her and getting on the car as well.

"My arm. I landed on it," she said feeling the tears fill her eyes now.

"Oh man" he said touching her arm lightly, "we better get Billy take a look at this," he said before they heard the door open from the car owner's house.

"Hey!" he yelled hearing his alarm for a while now, "What's going on out there?"

The three looked in his direction and saw he had a flashlight in his hand.

"Oh man" Tommy whispered, before hearing the roar of two motorcycles heading their way.

Adam and Rocky appeared with the group having heard Tanya and Tommy's conversation through their communicators.

"What's going on?" Rocky asked them as they got off their bikes and headed toward the car.

"It better not be no mangy teenagers out there!" the owner warned. The teens were quiet for a while and heard a click of a rifle being loaded.

Rocky gasped and looked at the rest of the team. "Uh…we're the power rangers!" he yelled out.

The rest turned to look at the man who was now heading their way. They quickly called on their helmets and put them on; Tommy having to put on Katherine's helmet before his.

The man came up to the group and saw five suited people around and on his car.

"What?" he asked with disbelief.

"He's right" Zeo Pink said in pain, "I'm sorry. I had an accident with my bike and I fell on your car."

"Wow" he said with enthusiasm. "I can't believe this."

"We're really sorry" Zeo Red said to him as he approached the man, "We'll pay for the damage she's done. It's a pretty bad dent."

"Oh no!" the man said surprising everyone, "That's gonna be my very own special dent. Wow…my car was dented by the pink power ranger" he stated with pride.

The rangers were silent for an instant before a sound of evil laughter could be heard.

The man gasped and picked up his rifle.

"NO!" the team said.

"We'll take care of this" Adam told him quickly.

"Yeah, just go inside, and don't come back out" Rocky ordered him as the man did what he said.

"Awww" an evil voice came toward the rangers, "I guess the pinky toe has to go wee wee wee, all the way home" he stated the nursery rhyme mockingly at Zeo Pink's expense.

The Zeo team looked around for the monster but nothing could be seen. The tinted helmets didn't allow them to see anything.

Zeo Red picked up his hands to his helmet and unlatched it. He removed it from his head and continued to look around wildly as the alarm was still on the car making his head spin even more than it already was.

Next was Green, then Yellow, then Blue.

"Kat, you better teleport to the Power Chamber, you could get hurt" noted Rocky.

Kat had removed her helmet with her left hand and removed it by now. She hopped off the car and declined the offer. "No…I can't do that. I can fight" she stated with confidence in her voice, yet inside screaming with fear from something she couldn't hear much less understand.

"Ooooh" NiteGlider said in his raspy voice, "A ranger with an attitude. I like that" he hissed.

"Show yourself…coward!" Tommy demanded before feeling the swift wind from NiteGlider pass through him.

"He's fast" Tanya whispered before hearing a whisper herself right next to her ear.

"Yes my dear, I am" he said getting just a centimeter away from her.

His again raspy voice made her get goosebumps as she cringed inside her skin.

A huge scratching sound could be heard in the sky. All of them looked up to see a huge bright line of light through the sheet of darkness.

"What!" NiteGlider yelled. "It can't be!"

He saw the brightness shine through even more as he stepped back a couple of steps. The city started to get its color back as NiteGlider disappeared before their very eyes. The team, knowing that it was daylight out, quickly put their helmets back on; this time Katherine getting help from Adam.

The teens remained looking up at the sky as the tearing continued.

As the sheet became more and more ripped, they could see a golden figure hovering above it. It became more visible as the shield was dissolving before their very eyes.

"What is that?" Tommy asked cautiously before the giant figure floated away without letting them get to see the whole thing.

- - -

"It just kept hovering over us" Adam told Billy as he aided Kat on her injury.

"I don't know what it is, but as soon as I get a reading on it…I'll let you guys know."

"It has to by an ally," Rocky said going over to the scanner and trying to find it in somewhere around the earth's atmosphere.

"How are you so sure?" Tanya asked him as she stood next to the medical scanning bed.

"Well because…" Rocky said before halting his words, "Umm…"

"Because it wouldn't done away with us then and there that's why…ugh" Kat said before wincing in pain.

"Yet, you forget, that our enemies don't wanna do away with us just like that. It has to be a game for the evil. If it's too easy getting rid of us, there will be no fun in that for them" Adam pointed out.

"Well, whatever it was…I'm just sure glad it showed up when it did" Tommy said gratefully as he looked around the Power Chamber.

"RANGERS, I MUST ADDRESS THAT THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE END OF NITEGLIDER. YOU HAVE YET TO DEFEAT THIS POWERFUL ENEMY" Zordon told them knowing that he was just adding to their problems.

The rangers all nodded at their mentor as they again looked at one another with worried faces.


	10. Chapter X

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter X / Water Fight**

Three days had passed, and the rangers were getting a little worried about not having heard from the Machine Empire. They knew they must keep their guards up for Mondo could have anything in store for them. The only thing that worried Zordon and Alpha was the Rangers lack of sleep. All of them had trouble sleeping for fear of getting snatched from NiteGlider whom was still around for all the knew.

Billy's birthday was coming up, and the rangers wanted to do something special for their friend. They all wanted him to have the best birthday of his life; they really wanted him to celebrate it instead of being in the Power Chamber like he planned to.

"Oh, come on Billy, your birthday's tomorrow. Your parents are probably gonna take you out or something" said Rocky.

"Yeah, who _knows_ when we're gonna have another free day" added Tommy.

"Umm, how 'bout all weekend long?" Billy answered pretending to be annoyed at his friends for wanting to drag him out to have some fun.

"Just admit that you want to go but are scared," said Adam making the others laugh.

The four boys along with Sherry and Kat were sitting in Billy's backyard near a huge tree for shade wanting to take Billy out to celebrate his birthday.

"Come on Billy, I bet you you'll have a lot of fun" Kat said after staying quiet for a while. She was more than happy that Billy had healed her hand in such a short amount of time. It was glorious for her having the Power Chamber and their technology there to help her.

"I'm willing to take that bet," said Billy.

"Boy have you been distant lately." Sherry said.

"It's not that, I just don't want to go. I've been working on a project lately and I don't want to get behind" he said in his defense.

"What, do you like set your own time limits or something?"

"Sherry"

"Yeah?"

"No" he said taking back the insult he had for the young girl.

A voice came from behind Billy; "I don't care if you want to or not, you're going," said Tanya before she shot Billy with a Nerf Water Gun on his back.

Billy squirmed forward and laughed as he got soaked with water.

"Where did you get that?" he yelled.

"Found it," she said as she pulled the trigger, this time squirting the rest of her friends in the process.

They all got up and Tommy and Rocky went directly towards the water hose.

Adam, seeing his two friends, followed behind.

Sherry and Kat were trying to get away from Tanya with no success until Kat saw that Sherry was running to the left so she decided to go to her right and have Tanya chase Sherry. Kat's plan didn't go as planned since Tanya then ran after her and was still soaking Kat's back.

"Tanya, I'm gonna get you for this!" she yelled as she ran.

"Ha, whatever!" Tanya yelled back.

Sherry thought she was out of danger and reclined her back on a medium sized tree. Soon after, she heard Kat running in her direction and instantly felt the gun's squirt on the right side of her face.

"Ahh, Tanya!" she yelled.

"That's what you get for trying to get away from me!"

"Yeah, attack _her_ Tanya!" yelled Kat while stopping and looking around for Billy. As she turned her head back around, she saw a huge ball of water heading towards her. She closed her eyes while putting her hands in front of her and crouching her body a bit to the right.

"Tommy!" she yelled.

"Yeah, get her!" said Tanya while taking off the tank from the water gun and dumping it on Rocky.

Adam was laughing hysterically before he felt a huge bucket of water being poured on him. He cringed downward before he looked up and noticed Billy getting him wet.

"Is this what I'm scared of?" he asked Adam.

Billy had another bucket of water and went towards Tanya now.

Tommy had turned with the hose and was now wetting Sherry at this point.

Katherine saw another bucket of water that was out on the steps. She ran towards it.

"Thanks Mrs. Cranston" she told Billy's mom while picking up the bucket.

"Don't let Tommy get away with it, Kat" she said before she went inside to fill another bucket of water.

"I won't."

Kat ran over to Tommy but Rocky, upon seeing her yelled, "Tommy, behind you!"

Kat gave him a look while still heading towards Tommy. He turned around only to get his face and chest soaked with cold water.

"Ahh" he screamed, "alright Kat!"

He gave the hose to Rocky while saying, "hold this…revenge!"

Katherine, upon seeing Tommy give the hose to Rocky knew she was in trouble, she then ran towards Billy who wasn't so far behind and snuck behind him.

"Don't hide, Kat!" Tommy yelled.

"I'm not hiding!" She said before starting to sprint away from him, "I'm running!"

Tommy quickly chased after her.

Rocky was filling the other buckets with water while Tanya and Sherry went over to get four more buckets of water from the back door steps.

"And those are the last ones, okay?" said Mrs. Cranston before heading inside then turning around again. She saw Rocky filling up his second bucket, Adam splashing her son with the first bucket which Rocky had filled, Tommy still chasing Katherine around the backyard trying to grasp her, and Tanya and Sherry heading over to the others with each holding two buckets in their hands. She smiled before yelling to them, "And don't you kids get my kitchen wet and dirty!" She knew they weren't listening, but it was sure worth a try.

Tommy caught up to Kat; he then threw his arms around her; noticing this, she quickly crouched down allowing herself to sway away from him and started running the other direction.

"Come here!" he yelled out to her.

"No way!"

Billy was laughing at seeing the two flirt like that before he got splashed by Sherry. He closed his eyes tight as the water made impact with his face.

"Ooh, Sherry, you're gonna get it!" said Rocky witnessing the event.

"No!" Tanya yelled to him, "_you're_ gonna get it!"

She splashed Rocky with one of the buckets and quickly got the other one off the floor seeing how quickly they had taken it away from Sherry.

Tanya swiftly got away with the bucket, but not before being splashed with the hose by Rocky. He then gave the hose to Adam while he went over to Sherry who was soaking wet sitting on the picnic bench.

"Hey," he said. "Melting with so much water?"

She smiled at him. "No, I just wanna watch for a while, that's all."

"Oh, I see, well, you mind if I watch with you?"

"Not at all" she said with a smile as he sat down next to her and put his right hand on her hip.

She lowered her head on his shoulder and laughed alongside with him as they both watched their friends still yelling and wetting each other.

"Kat, don't make this worst than it already is!" yelled Tommy, frustrated that he still couldn't catch Kat.

"A little tired grandpa?" yelled Kat from just a few steps ahead of him, still running.

Adam ran over with the hose towards Tanya, while Billy had the other bucket that he took away from Sherry.

Tanya was running towards a corner, but turned to see behind her that she could've gotten cornered so she decided to make a swift left turn but slipped on the wet grass.

The boys behind her quickly started laughing, but Billy took the opportunity to wet her with the bucket.

Adam couldn't stop laughing at Tanya who was just getting up, but like a trooper started running again while laughing hysterically too.

Kat had seen her friend fall and couldn't keep in the laughter. She started laughing hysterically making her slow down and letting herself be caught by Tommy.

Tommy quickly noticed her slowing her speed, and went for her while grabbing her by her shoulders.

"Tommy!" she yelled as she tried to push his hands off of her shoulders, but soon noticed that was the worst thing to do.

As soon as seeing her hands come up to her shoulders, Tommy quickly grabbed her wrists and took hold of her.

"Ha, I got you!"

She again crouched down, but to no prevail in getting away from him.

"You're not getting away from me _this_ time!"

Tommy pulled her strongly against his chest not letting go of her wrists. He pulled her, but noticed she was pulling all her weight to her right side away from Adam, whom was filling another bucket still laughing at Tanya.

Billy then went towards Adam to get the bucket. Tanya came in behind him and swung the bucket in his direction.

Billy flinched, but noticed that there was no water coming his way. Tanya hadn't noticed that aside from dropping water with all the running she did to get away from Adam and Billy, she had dropped all the water when she fell.

"Hmm, no wonder it got a lot lighter" she said looking down into the bucket before getting splashed from the top of her head by Billy.

Tommy couldn't pull Kat any further towards Adam so decided to call Adam himself.

"Adam, bring the hose!"

"No, Adam, don't listen to him!" she yelled trying still to get out of his grasp.

"I'm gonna show you what a _grandpa _could do!" Tommy said putting his arms around her abdomen and quickly scooped Kat up while heading towards Adam.

"No Tommy! Please!" she begged.

"Oh, _now_ it's please" he said while still going over to Adam quickly, by which he was coming towards them with the same speed.

As they were ten feet from each other, Adam turned the hose towards Kat. Tanya began to laugh hysterically as Katherine was still squirming, but this time turning her head from side to side lowering it in the process.

"Get 'er good Adam!" said Tommy, not minding he was getting soaked as well. _As long as I have you in my arms like this, I don't mind anything_, he thought.

"Adam! Stop!" yelled Kat for yet the twentieth time.

Tanya was still laughing as Adam lowered the water hose panting. She soon realized they were all panting.

Tommy let Kat go, and Kat just took a few steps away from him as he was still laughing. _Hell, why'd he have to stop?_ She thought, _Tommy really had me tight_, she whined to herself still wanting to be held by Tommy.

Billy was laughing as well along with Adam who was turning off the water.

"Well, _that_ was fun," said a still panting Billy.

"I know someone who had _way_ morefun," said Tanya slyly. The group looked at her questioningly before turning towards where she was looking.

They all saw Rocky and Sherry sharing a passionate kiss, without thoughts of breaking it.

At that, their communicators went off making Tommy say sarcastically, "And time for a little _more_ fun."

The group again looked in Rocky's direction and saw that he looked up at Sherry stopping their kiss.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Ummm…nothing…just my alarm; I promised my mom I'd mop the floor today and I didn't do it."

"Oh, so do we have to go?"

"Yeah, I think it's best."

"Alright" Sherry said with disappointment in her voice. She got up and turned to the team; "I'll se you guys later."

"Bye" they said as they saw her walk off.

Rocky jogged towards them and said, "Look, I'll drop her off and I'll go to the Power Chamber as soon as I can."

They all nodded before seeing him leave and having Tommy answer the call.

- - -

The five teens arrived at the Power Chamber shortly and looked around.

"What is it Alpha?" Tommy asked going to the consoles while Billy walked directly to the scanning bay.

"Ay, yai, yai, we don't know what's making the system go off!"

"Calm down Alpha" Katherine stated going over to Alpha, "I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll show up."

"Yeah, we just have to look for it" Tanya said looking over the sheets coming out of the gap on the monitor.

Adam went over to the left side to look at the apparatus that Billy was working on.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Oh, that's a work in progress."

"Was that your project?" Kat asked going over and looking at it as well.

"Well, yeah…sort of."

"Well, what is it supposed to be?"

"A cannon. I just have to work out the cliches here and there."

"Billy, the computer found something!" Alpha exclaimed.

Billy ran over to Alpha and saw the screen for the outlined picture of what was making the sensors go off.

"What is that?" he asked squinting his eyes in confusion.

The others made their way towards Billy and Alpha where Tommy was already there.

Adam also took a long hard look a it, "It looks sort of like a…pyramid."


	11. Chapter XI

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XI / Getting to Know You**

The rangers saw a pyramid-like shape in front of them on the screen. It wasn't in full though. All they could see was the surge of the white outline of it, and nothing more.

All of a sudden, it got smaller and smaller until the scanner could not detect it anymore.

"What was _that_ all about?" Tanya asked to no one, yet getting a response.

"I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with Mondo and his goons" Tommy told the team as they looked in his direction.

"Billy, why did it get small like that?" Adam questioned.

"It seems to me that it got small because of the distance."

"So, whatever it was, left the earth's atmosphere?" Kat asked.

"That's what it looks like."

"Well, what was it doing here in the first place?"

"That's something we _really _need to find out" Billy said turning back to the screen and seeing nothing but stars.

- - -

"I wonder if The Smash Heads are gonna come and play at the Angel Grove Coliseum" Joel told his girlfriend.

"I don't know, with all the monster attacks going on here, I doubt _anyone_ would want to play here."

Joel held Kat's hand as he opened the door for her to walk into the Youth Center before going over to the table where Adam, Rocky, and Sherry sat.

"Hey you guys" Kat said as she sat down.

Joel sat down next to her before flicking his head to side making his hair fly towards that direction.

"What's up?" he said in a fast tone that was barely audible by the rest of the group.

"Hey" they all said.

"You guys this is Joel. Joel, this is Adam, Rocky, and Sherry" Kat said pointing out her friends.

"Cool" he simply said nodding his head.

The group was quiet for a while and just looked at one another waiting for Joel to say something, before Sherry spoke up.

"Well, that's enough about you, let's talk about the upcoming soccer game that's coming up" she said making the others laugh under their breaths and Kat giving her a small glare at this, which Sherry just shrugged off.

"There you go again…about soccer" Rocky whined.

"Well, do _you_ have anything to talk about that's better than soccer?"

"Yeah, life."

"How's that? Soccer _is_ life."

"Not for humans."

"Oh, and what am I exactly?"

"I don't know, but you're _definitely_ not human."

"Then why are you dating me?"

"Cuz, everyone _knows_ that aliens put out."

Sherry at this made an 'O' shape with her mouth along with Kat which both were stunned from what Rocky had said.

Joel just put his hands in his pant pockets, reclined back on his chair and grinned while shaking his head at what Rocky had just said.

Adam at this laughed as well along with Rocky whom was now getting hit by his girlfriend on the arm.

"I'll have you know, there's no proof of that," Billy said from behind Adam.

The group had not noticed Tanya and Billy walking in as the two quarreled for that moment.

"Sure there is…look at Sherry" Tanya said getting a laugh out of everyone.

Billy went over to sit on the other side of Kat as Tanya sat down between Adam and Joel.

"Hey Joel" she said.

"Hey"

"This is Billy" Kat told Joel as she pointed at Billy.

"Hi" Billy told him.

Joel at this lifted his head in a greeting gesture.

Kat didn't need to introduce him to Tanya having that she had met him several times before.

"Looks like we're all here" Rocky said rubbing his arm.

"Wait, where's Tommy?" Kat asked.

"He's out on a date" Rocky answered her.

"With who?"

"I don't know, what am I, his nanny?"

"No, but if you knew that he was out on a date, I assumed you would've known with whom he was out."

Rocky at this hissed and pretended to scratch the air towards Kat's direction making the others laugh.

"I'm not feisty okay…"

"Well, you have an awful way of showing it" Sherry told her as she got up.

"I can't believe that Monday's are almost here" Tanya said slumping down on her chair.

"Yeah I know, I can't believe that our beautiful four day weekend was gone just like that. I looked forward to it too last week" Rocky said snapping his fingers.

"Did you get a vacation for Easter?" Kat asked in Joel's direction.

"Nah, there's no religious holidays" he said.

"What do you mean? What prison to you go to?" Rocky asked making the others laugh along with Joel before he answered him.

"Angel Grove University." He licked his lips before continuing, "they only give breaks after the ending of the semester."

"Wow, you go to college?" Sherry asked coming back to the table with a burger and fries.

"Yeah, I'm barely a sophomore there."

"Hmmm…interesting, what are you studying?" Billy asked him.

"Behavioral Science."

"See, he's not only cute, he's smart too" Kat told the group making them laugh at a now smiling and blushing Joel.

- - -

Tommy opened his truck door for Vanessa. After his lie to the girls, he thought about actually asking her out. He had been doing nothing at home, and decided to give her a call.

"There you go" he told her as she stepped out.

"Thanks" she said looking at where he took her.

"So, nice woods" she said taking a better look.

"It's actually just a campsite" he corrected her as he motioned her towards the picnic table he had set out for the two of them.

"Oh. So, what gave you the urge to give me a call any ways?" she asked as she went over to sit down.

"I was just thinking about you a lot."

"Well, I had given up hope on you Tommy. I mean, I gave you my number like what, three weeks ago?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I miss placed it or something" he said as he sat down across from her.

"Did you cook this yourself?" she asked him as she saw him taking out the food from the basket.

"Most of it" he said grinning, "some of it was store bought actually."

"Is that potato salad?"

"Yeah, why you like it?"

"I love potato salad. Mmmm…and chocolate cake."

"Yeah, I'm guessing you like to eat, huh."

"I _love_ to eat," she corrected him taking the plate he handed her.

"Really? I really like that on a girl. Besides, judging from your physique, I wouldn't have guessed" Tommy told her as she smiled at the compliment.

"Thanks" she said as she looked down sheepishly at her food.

- - -

"Your grace, I can't seem to get a lock on the interdemensional shape we saw a while ago" Klank told Mondo.

"What are you talking about Klank? I have the machinery to search for anything in the whole galaxy!"

"I know your majesty, but when we scanned for the object, it just vanished out into thin air."

"Fine then. I'll settle that business some other time. Now tell me Klank, do you have Tohadmorst assemble and ready yet?"

"Uhhh…I _do_ apologize sire, but I'm afraid I don't have him ready for battle yet."

"What are you waiting for Klank!"

"Well, you see sir, when I was getting him ready, you called for me to take a look a the object."

"Yes…and?"

"Then when it left, you sent me to search for it."

"Get to the point Klank!"

"Well your majesty, it took up most of my time that I was using to look for the object instead of continuing on creating the monster for you."

"Are you saying that I keep you from your duties!"

"Oh no King Mondo, I'm just saying that it was _my _fault for not having the monster ready before you called me in the first place."

"Okay then. Get back to your work and don't fail me _this_ time Klank."

"Yes your majesty" Klank said as he bowed down to his master and went back into his lab.

"Hmm…I wonder what I can do to get those retched teenagers tired before they have to deal with my monster" King Mondo pondered as he began to pace around the balcony.

- - -

"So you wanna do something later on?" Joel asked Kat as the group all left the Youth Center and said their good-byes leaving them alone at the table.

"Yeah" she said as she shivered a bit at feeling his hand go around her waist.

"Why didn't you go with your friends?" He asked as they now got up and made their way out the door a while after the team did.

"I wanted to stay here with you" she answered feeling his hand in hers now making her smile.

He smiled at her and shook his head to one side making his hair fling to his left.

"Let's sit down" he told her as he motioned for her to sit on a nearby bench just outside of the Youth Center.

"Okay" she said going over and sitting down on a near side bench. Before she did though, he got in back of her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he sat down pulling her down on top of him making her blush as the people around her saw her sitting on him.

"Ummm" she said as she got up and sat beside him, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? You're my girlfriend. Besides, you shouldn't care about what other people think of you."

"Oh, I don't care what other people think of me…"

"Then? What's the problem babe?"

"Uhh…" she let out biting her lip, "I just don't like the whole, 'let's show the world we're in love' deal."

"Oh, alright. You should've just said that" he said easily making her smile as he wrapped his right arm around her shoulder giving her a pop kiss on the lips.

- - -

"I'll see guys later," Billy said as the group turned to look at him.

"Where you going man?" Rocky asked him.

"I gotta get back and finish my project that I mentioned to you guys…remember?" Billy said mentioning the cannon.

"Oh, yeah…cool" Adam told him as Billy turned around.

"See ya" Billy told the group.

"Bye" they all said.

"So, what's on the plan for today?" Sherry asked them once Billy was a good distance away.

"Please don't say the park again" Adam said as he was already thinking that another trip to the park for them was getting blasé.

"How 'bout the beach?" Rocky suggested as he started walking again.

"And do what? Freeze our butts off?" Sherry told him as she was in back of him before tripping him making him stumble a bit.

This made Tanya laugh out loud at Rocky making him turn around and pick Sherry up before twirling her around a couple of times.

"Okay! I'll stop!" Sherry said as she began getting dizzy.

"Let's just go play basketball" Tanya told them as Rocky put Sherry down.

"Have a ball?" Rocky asked her.

"No" Adam said.

"Not me. Unless you wanna play with my soccer ball," said Sherry trying to get her balance at seeing the ground move.

"I think I left mine in Kat's car. Let me go get the keys from her" Tanya said turning around in the Youth Center's direction.

"Okay" Rocky said before noticing that Adam and Sherry followed her as well then decided to go too.

Once they reached Kat's earshot, Tanya yelled out her name making both Kat and Joel turn towards her.

At that, their communicators rang the six-tone beep and they all froze.

"I forgot to go to the grocery store today. Can you give me a ride?" Tanya thought quickly changing the question that she was going to ask.

Kat looked at Joel then stood up.

"Yeah!" she yelled back at her, "I gotta go. Umm…we're still on for tonight though right?"

"Yeah, of course" he told her pulling her in and giving her an open-mouthed kiss in which she backed a bit away from yet still kissed him quickly.

Sherry again asked, "What is that damn sound?"

"I told you babe, it's my alarm" Rocky told her as he got out his keys to his car.

"What do you have to do now?"

"I gotta go with Adam to the Resource Center and get some books before tomorrow. Here" he said handing her the keys, "drive the car to your house and I'll go pick it up later."

"Okay" she said happy to be driving the mustang his brother let him borrow until he came back from out of town.

"I'll call you" he told her before giving her a kiss.

"Bye" she told the group before leaving.

As they saw her drive off, they looked around to see if there were any people around.

"Coast is clear" Rocky told Adam.

Katherine then answered her communicator.

- - -

Tommy became aware of Vanessa's appetite once she was on her third serving of potato salad. She was now having her second piece of cake and enjoying it a little too much.

He saw her lick her fingers down to the rim that made him somewhat disgusted. Especially at the fact that there were no sinks or running water around which meant that he was probably going to have to touch her saliva infested hand.

The only thing that stopped her from getting another piece of cake was the sound of Tommy's communicator.

"What's that sound?"

"Uhh…" Tommy had never been so happy to be interrupted by his communicator like this moment, "it's my beeper. Let me just check it really quick" he said lowering his head to his side a bit and pretending to take something half way out of his pocket.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Oh, you know what, it's my mom. I think I better get going."

"Awww, really?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry."

"It's okay. You're gonna drop me off right?"

"Oh yeah, of course" he told her as he got up quickly.


	12. Chapter XII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XII / Cog Attack**

The teens arrived at the Power Chamber, all except for Tommy.

"I trust you all got my call" Billy told them as he saw them go directly toward him.

"Yeah Billy, what's up?" Rocky asked motioning more with his hands than anything.

"There are Cogs in the East Side of Angel Grove. The computer counted a good number too."

"Alright, we'll go over there then," Kat said easily.

"If only it would be that easy" Billy told them.

"What do you mean?" Adam asked taking a step toward him.

"There are also a good number of Cogs on the North Side of Angel Grove as well."

"Oh" Kat simply said.

"And the South" Billy finished.

"Jeez Billy" Tanya said before calming down and asking, "What about the West Side?"

"There's no distress signals out there yet."

At that, Tommy teleported in asking the same question everyone had just been answered.

- - -

Back at the Machine Empire, King Mondo went towards Klank's lab to see how his work was coming out.

"Klank, are you in here?" Mondo asked for his servant, seeing that there was hardly any light, he couldn't see his employee.

Mondo, short after, heard a soft groan followed by a loud pop sound.

"What is going on! I demand to know who is here!" he yelled letting the fear show.

After that, he simply heard a small hiss and decided to get out of the room.

"Klank, I'll wait for you out here" he said trying not to show the fear that was already overtaking his body so rapidly.

As soon as he stepped out of the lab, he noticed Klank coming down the hallway and decided to call out to him.

"Klank, where have you been? I've been waiting here for hours."

"Oh, I _do_ apologize sir, but the monster I am building for you needs a bit more time to get adjusted to its surroundings."

"Well, then I'll leave you to your duties" King Mondo said trying to get out of there as soon as he could.

- - -

Zeo Yellow flew towards a Cog with a powerful kick knocking him to the ground as Zeo Blue jumped onto a board nearby causing it to tip over and make the six bricks that were on it fly and hit a Cog on the head.

He ran towards a Cog catching it by surprise as he punched him in the chest making it fall back and wiggle its arms and legs.

As soon a Zeo Yellow saw a Cog coming towards her, she jumped up and did a back flip while kicking the Cog with both legs in the process.

"Hee-Ya!" Yelled Zeo Blue as he kicked a jumping Cog on the knee making it fall forward. Zeo Blue barely got out of the way to let the Cog hit the floor.

- - -

"Hey, miss me?" Zeo Green said as he ran up to two different Cogs. He punched one with his right fist before quickly kicking the other with his left foot.

"Ay-Ya!" Zeo Pink yelled as she turned to punch a Cog in the abdomen. She turned around and saw another heading toward her. "Man, when are you guys gonna quit the machine scenery?" she questioned as she got in stance to defend herself from the incoming Cog. She jumped up as she saw the Cog try to sweep her and landed right in front of the Cog. She kneed him on the head before kicking him on the side of his metallic head with her shin.

Zeo Green jumped towards a Cog letting it jump back and as he saw it lost its balance, he quickly went towards him punching the Cog on its face. He looked around and saw two more coming his way. He retrieved his Zeo Pistol as he shot at one and waited for the other for just a second to kick him making it fall to the ground.

- - -

Zeo Red took care of the North Side by himself allowing the others to take care of the rest. He had told Rocky and Tanya to take the East Side and told Adam and Kat to take the South Side. It was up to him to get rid of the Cogs.

Knowing that he didn't have a good chance if he went into the battle empty handed, Zeo Red decided, before he teleported into the battlefield, to take out his Zeo Sword.

As he saw a Cog running towards a direction that was away from the Zeo Ranger, he made that Cog his first target. Zeo Red ran full speed towards the Cog and jumped as far as he could, landing just a foot behind the Cog, slashing him in the back. The Cog felt the impact and fell to the floor from the Zeo Ranger's Sword.

- - -

Back on the East Side of Angel Grove, Zeo Blue and Yellow had their hands full from starting to get exhausted from the Cogs. As one fell down, another came at them.

Zeo Yellow punched a Cog on the stomach but her weakness did not allow her to hit him as hard as she could. "Ugh!" she groaned as the Cog jumped back from her punch and pushed her down. Another Cog saw and rushed at her as she was half way up and kicked her on her left side of her ribs.

"Ugh…he-ya…za!" yelled Zeo Blue as he took on two Cogs that refused to go down. "Tanya, are you alright?" he asked as he rushed over to her and knelt down. As soon as he got there though, a Cog started going at him. Zeo Blue quickly got up to his feet and defended the yellow ranger from any Cog that was coming at them.

He called on his Axe and started defending himself against any Cogs that would approach him, having to look back from time to time towards a hurt Zeo Yellow that was now struggling to her feet to help out her friend.

- - -

South Side Angel Grove was no different from the East. Zeo Pink and Green weren't having any luck in destroying the Cogs either.

Zeo Pink ran towards a Cog and used her Disc to swirl around and hit him so severely, it caused the Cog to go flying several feet at high mileage making it fall on top of four Cogs. As they all fell simultaneously, they disappeared without a trace.

"Hey, over here!" Zeo Green yelled as he called two Cogs to go towards him. To the Cogs' surprise, he called on his Hatchet and began to give great blows to both of them.

"Adam, I could use a hand!" Zeo Pink yelled out to her friend as four Cogs had her surrounded while three were holding her down making her drop her Disc in the process.

"Right Kat! I'm on my way!" yelled Zeo Green before leaping forcefully up towards the air and headed towards Zeo Pink. Although, as he was in the air, three Cogs saw him and grabbed both his feet making him come down and hit the ground hard.

"Adam! Are you alright?" she yelled, still trying to fight off the Cogs.

"I'm fine," he yelled to her as he kicked a Cog on the face even though he was down. As he got back up, he noticed Zeo Pink had managed to get herself out of the loop of Cogs.

She was now kicking and punching her way out of there. As soon as she saw the chance, she bent over and grabbed her Disc off the ground as she twirled around and around with her arm extended outward. As she turned around, the Disc began hitting Cog after Cog that was surrounding her and the faster she went, the more wind and speed she got. A small tornado started to appear making it out to be the pink ranger. All the Cogs, from the strong wind she was creating, started getting blown away from her location.

Zeo Green at this saw that he too was getting blown away and quickly grabbed on to a nearby tube that was bolted to the ground. As the wind became stronger, Zeo Green could feel his feet getting lifted off the floor and onto the air until his whole body was about to be blown away.

"Kat! Stop…. You can stop now!" he said, as he was just a finger away from getting blown away as well.

At this, Zeo Pink stopped and saw her surroundings.

"Whoa, what was _that_?" he asked amazed.

"I don't know" she said putting away her Disc, "I had never tried it before."

- - -

"Oh man, I don't know how much more of this I can take" Zeo Blue said as he saw a Cog coming at him.

"Whoa!" Zeo Yellow yelled before just barely dodging a Cog's blow to her helmet, "Rocky! A little help" she said before getting hit by a Cog from the back.

"Sorry to disappoint you Tanya! Ugh…ah…but…ugh…ya! I have my hands full!" said Zeo Blue as he was defending himself from yet another Cog.

"Care if _I _jump in?" Zeo Green asked going over to help Zeo Yellow.

"Oh no…ugh…not at all…he-ya!"

- - -

Back at the North Side, Zeo Red was struggling immensely against the Cogs.

"Oh man" he said kicking one away from him. He saw the Cog fall back and turned around just to find another coming at him in the air with a kick just an inch away from his face.

Zeo Red blocked his head with his arms bracing himself for the blow before not feeling anythig at all except for a swift movement and hearing, "Ay-ya!"

He quickly uncovered his vision and saw Zeo Pink there.

"How you holdin' up?"

"Better, now that you're here" he said quickly turning around and getting back to fighting.

He ran at a Cog and kicked him. "Zeek! Ay-ya…ugh…za!" he yelled as he was fighting the Cog.

Zeo Pink now was fighting off a Cog when she noticed in the far distance the Zeo Five Battle Sword. She ran towards it only to get blocked by a Cog. "So you wanna dance?" she asked it before punching it and taking her Zeo Pistol out. She shot it on the chest as it came back to her and fell backward. "Another one for the good guys" she said out loud as she noticed the Cog go down.

"Tommy, heads up…here!" said Zeo Pink as she threw the sword a short distance to Zeo Red. Zeo Red at this looked up and saw his sword. He stretched out his hand and successfully caught it.

"Now…it's time to rumble" he said as he slashed a Cog with his sword and then went towards another while doing a tornado kick in the air causing it to get hit and thrown on the floor. "Ha! _That's_ how you do it!"

- - -

Back at the Power Chamber, the Zeo team teleported in. As soon as they got there they turned around and collapsed on the stairs behind them. Removing their helmets, they sighed and lied down on either the top steps of the bottom steps.

"Rough one, huh?" Billy told them as he saw them panting and trying to grasp some air.

Rocky picked up his head, "Man…that was brutal" he stated before again dropping it on the floor and panting more.

Billy saw the team and shook his head knowing that they were all very tired. He turned around towards the consoles before hearing the alarms go off. He quickly started pressing buttons to get to the bottom of it.

"You guys, you better come and take a look at this" he told them as he brought the image up on the viewing globe.

The others got up quickly and rushed towards where Billy was standing.

"What is that Billy?" Tommy asked while not taking his eyes off the image.

"It looks like a two headed monster" Adam noticed.

Kat, wrinkling her eyebrows, looked closer into the image, "Is…is it…separating?"

"Ewww…I think it _is_" Tanya said in disgust.

"Jeez, what is it doing now?" Rocky asked as they saw the monster now fully separated into to different pieces and from each ripped half was taking out and extra arm and leg.

"Ugh, that's disgusting" Kat said wrinkling her nose.

"Where are they going? They're going into different parts of the city" Adam answered his own question.

"Great…that's just we need again" Tommy said sarcastically.

"Zordon, do you have _any_ information on Mondo's new monster?" Billy asked their mentor.

"I DO BILLY. THIS IS TOHADMORST, THE NEWEST CREATION FROM THE MACHINE EMPIRE. CREATED BY KING MONDO, THE TWO HEADED MONSTER CAN SEPARATE AT WILL. RANGERS, IT CAN DESTROY TWO PLACES AT ONCE IF WE DO NOT STOP HIM"

"Wait, is it one…or two?" Rocky asked making the others now look back up at Zordon.

"FORTUNATELY RANGERS IT'S JUST ONE MONSTER. TO GET RID OF HIM, YOU MUST DESTROY THE ONE, WHICH IS CARRYING THE BRAIN. IF YOU DESTROY THE RIGHT ONE, THE OTHER WILL AUTOMATICALLY SHUT DOWN."

"Okay, just for laughs, what if we get the wrong one?" Tommy asked the question on everyone's mind.

"THEN THE MONSTER WILL GROW EVEN STRONGER WITHOUT IT'S NAGGING HALF."

"Well, that's great" Adam said snorting.

Tommy turned to look at the team with a worried face. "You guys ready to take this clown down?"

"Clowns" Rocky said, making Tommy look at him questionably.

"You guys ready to take these _clowns_ down?" he said making Rocky smile.

"READY!"

"It's morphin' time!"


	13. Chapter XIII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XIII / Tohadmorst**

The five morphed teens arrived at the scene where the right half of Tohadmorst was. They looked around to see if they could see where the other one was.

"Alright, look, first thing's first" Zeo Red told the team as they huddled around him, "we need a way to tell them apart."

The teens nodded inside their suits and looked at the monster.

"Tommy, what if Tanya and I go check out the other monster and see any abnormalities. We'll use our communicators to talk to each other" Kat suggested making the others ponder this as well.

"Alright. You and Tanya go ahead and do that" said Zeo Red before seeing a swarm of Cogs appear from a giant gear above them.

"Rocky behind you!" Adam said not noticing the Cog behind him.

The Cogs instantly began to try to defeat the rangers as soon as they got there.

Zeo Yellow took Zeo Pink's hand and pulled her out of a Cog's grasp, "Come on" she said as she pulled her.

The others saw this action and Zeo Green spoke up, "you guys go ahead" he told his other two friends, "I'll take care of the Cogs!"

"Are you sure?" Zeo Blue asked him before getting orders from his leader.

"Come on Rocky, we gotta hurry!"

- - -

Zeo Yellow and Pink ran towards the other monster. They noticed a purple spot on its back.

Zeo Yellow while still running side by side with Pink called through the communicator. "Guys, do you see a purple spot on his back?"

"_Yeah!_" Came through the other end.

"Umm…" Zeo Yellow said as she wanted to run in front of it. She saw Zeo Pink a couple steps ahead of her towards the monster's right side. She looked at it for a while and the monster stopped.

"Why isn't he attacking?" Zeo Pink asked her friend as she saw the monster look in her direction and stare at her. He cocked his head to one side, as he didn't lose sight of her. Zeo Pink noticed him not even blinking as he stared at her.

He nodded his head and charged at her. She took two steps to the side and dodged him coming at her. As he passed her, she planted her left foot and tripped him.

"Pretty clumsy" Zeo Yellow noted.

"You're telling me" Zeo Pink counted as she walked toward her.

The two Zeo rangers looked at the monster that was struggling on the floor to get up.

"You think this is the brains in the operation?" Zeo Yellow asked her friend.

"Nope, we better contact Tommy and Rocky."

As the girls both contacted their friends, Rocky answered, "_Yeah? Ugh…ah…hee-ya…ugh!_"

"Sounds like they need help" Zeo Yellow told Pink as they left the still struggling monster on the ground and ran toward their friends to help then deal with the main one.

"Hey, is this the one?" Zeo Pink yelled as they arrived.

"Well, if you girls alone already dealt with the other one on your own, then this _must_ be the one" Zeo Red told them as he continued to fight the monster.

"Is Adam…" Zeo Yellow began to ask for her crush before he appeared in the air kicking Tohadmorst as he came in.

"Yeah?" he asked her before she just got back to battling.

"_Guys, the other monster is on a rampage. I think he acted dumb for you to leave him alone. The scanner shows his brain being in complete form as the one you're fighting isn't nearly as dangerous._" Billy's voice came in through their communicators, which were hidden under their white gloves.

"You mean to say, zeek, that this isn't remotely near…ugh, as dangerous as the other one?" Zeo Red asked his friend as he went toward the monster with his Zeo Sword.

"I hate to see…what the other one…is packing" Zeo Blue said as he too was fighting the monster with all his might.

All of a sudden, as they were trying to fend off the monster, in lightning speed, they saw a black shadow-like figure streak from on top of a building down towards the monster. He hit him with such force that the monster fell backward.

"Whoa! What was _that_?" Zeo Red called out as they couldn't see what happened exactly.

"I don't know man, but let's head over there" Zeo Green said as he pointed in the direction of the other monster that was far away by this point.

"Yeah, okay" Zeo Red said as he saw nothing but a black streak going all around the monster making it confused as it was getting hit from not even knowing where the hits nor pain was coming from. The monster just let out a couple of horrible painful shrieks as Zeo Red was in a trance of trying to get a good look at it. He then noticed the black figure having a gold outline, but before the figure stopped his attacking against the monster, Zeo Red was pulled away from the scene as Zeo Blue pulled him back into reality.

"Come on man! We gotta go get this thing!" He pulled his friend and followed in the direction toward where he saw the others heading having the girls lead the way knowing that they already knew where the monster was and might know where he was heading.

The three rangers arrived where the monster was. He again turned to look at Zeo Pink and stared at her. Next was Zeo Green. He looked over to him and cocked his head as if not knowing what to do. Zeo Yellow at this retrieved her Double Clubs and began to charge the monster while it was acting dumb. The monster saw this but did nothing. He got struck by the Zeo Ranger and fell to the floor shrieking in pain.

Zeo Pink stepped forward and called on her Disc. She again stepped forward even more and before flinging her Disc at him like she planned, the monster used his right arm to swiftly swipe her feet making her fall suddenly onto the hard floor.

In the back, Zeo Red and Blue ran up to the team seeing the Pink ranger down. Zeo Blue charged at the monster that was now getting up knowing that they were not going to leave him alone this time.

He quickly got up before Zeo Blue could hit him with his weapons. Tohadmorst saw the blue Axes pass with a whoosh on the side of his face.

Tohadmorst sent out two bolts of energy from his hands toward the Blue ranger that made him fly back a couple of feet. Zeo Red turned to look at his friend fly and not being able to do anything about it. He already had his sword gripping it with frustration. He jumped up and as he came down, he pushed the sword down towards Tohadmorst.

The monster moved again trying to dodge the sword but couldn't move so quickly. He got three of his electrical fingers sliced off. Green pigmented slime came oozing out of his now two-fingered hand. He yelped with pain before looking toward his right and seeing Zeo Yellow's Double Clubs charge at him. He got electrocuted himself by her crystal power.

Zeo Pink at this charged him with her Disc putting it in front of her and swirling causing her body to turn horizontally. She twirled around so abruptly as the Zeo ranger was electrocuting him. He felt the sharp pain that the Disc's impact felt. He fell to the ground and dissolved into a puddle of green goo.

A sharp stench came out as the rangers all surrounded the puddle. Zeo Green put his Hatches away and lowered his head.

"This sucks" he said as the others looked at his. Even thought they had their helmets on, he could see that they all had questionable looks on their faces.

"What are you talking about Adam?" Zeo Red asked his depressed friend.

"I didn't even get to use my Hatchets," he said glumly making the others laugh.

"Oh!" Zeo Blue said before making the others jump; the all still thought he was hurt in one way or another from the sharp blow he had received.

"What?" Zeo Red asked with great concern.

The Zeo Team saw the blue ranger run in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" Zeo Pink called out to him.

"That thing that keeps helping us!" he said not bothering to stop running.

The others ran even faster now wanting to see if he was still with the other monster. They noticed an even bigger puddle of foul odor coming from the goo.

"Imagine if we didn't have our helmets on?" Zeo Yellow asked seeing that everyone smelled the same thing she was.

"Eww, don't even say that" Zeo Blue said before still looking around for the mysterious black figure.

"We better teleport to the Power Chamber" Zeo Red said as they all did what they were told.

- - -

"Whoa, you really gotta demorph" Billy told the team as he swung an arm in front of his face.

"It's moments like these that make me glad to be a robot," Alpha said as he walked over to the consoles to see if everything was fine down on earth.

"OR IN A TIME WARP TUBE" Zordon said adding his two cents in making the others laugh.

"Power down!" Zeo Red demanded before the others did the same.

"Yeah, I'm sure we even stink underneath our suits" Adam said looking down at his clothes.

"Or our own clothes" Rocky noted before getting shot down by Tanya.

"Speak for yourself on _that_ one Rocky" she said making the others laugh once more.

"You guys wanna do something later on?" Tommy asked the group, as they were all demorphed now.

"I don't know. We being girls and all…I don't think we could handle playing with the big boys," Katherine said sarcastically before teleporting out.

Tanya shrugged at this at not knowing what she was talking about. She walked toward Adam and nudged him a bit, "So, wanna teach me some katas now that we can be all alone." Her flirtatiousness made the young teenage boy in that green tee-shirt turn a bright red.

Rocky and Tommy looked away and Billy and Alpha did the same. They looked uncomfortable to be there, though; no one could blame them. Even though they all felt uncomfortable, no one in the Power Chamber could be as uncomfortable as Adam at that point. He completely got taken off guard by Tanya, but had to admit that he liked it.

"Sure" he finally managed to say before seeing the bright smile on her face.

"Let's go then," she said taking him by the hand and leading him toward the middle of the Power Chamber, "We'll see you guys later" she said before looking at her communicator.

"Yeah, bye" Adam said with a warm smile still having his face red as can be.

"What was _that_ all about?" Tommy asked a yawning Rocky as Billy and Alpha got back to work on the system they were working on at the moment.

"Huh?" Rocky asked as he finished his yawn, "You know unpredictable Tanya…"

"No, not her. I know that came out of left field, but then again, almost everything Tanya says comes out of left field."

Rocky nodded graciously at this.

"I'm talking about Kat man. She's not one to be saying things out of the blue like right now."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"You know, that whole, not playing with the big boys or something."

"Oh that…I don't know. I guess she's mad about something. Don't worry, she'll get over it."

Tommy wasn't convinced, and decided to go to her house before heading to his to get some answers.

- - -

June Hillard called out to her daughter who was upstairs in her room.

"Katherine honey, Tommy's here to see you!" She yelled getting close to the stairs' end.

"What?" Katherine said coming out of her room, "Tommy?" She stopped as she saw him downstairs looking up at her. "Yeah?" she asked him as she saw her mom heading into the living room and knew she was headed toward the kitchen. She walked downstairs waiting for a reply as she did.

"Umm…are you okay?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be?"

"I don't know…you just left the Power Chamber so quickly and to tell you the truth, like if you were mad or something."

"I'm not mad," she said dryly walking to the living room.

"Kat" he started to say as he followed her.

She sat on the couch and turned on the television to a music channel.

"What's going on?" he asked her noticing her picking up the remote and turning up the volume without even glancing at him.

"Kat" he said sternly as he took away the control and turned off the TV.

"What? What do you want me to tell you, oh mighty leader?"

This completely hurt Tommy. He still didn't know what she was mad about, but at least he already knew whom she was mad _at_.

"Katherine…" he said as he took her hand in his making her tremble inside, "I _really_ care about you. I don't want you to be mad at me; and if you are, I'd at least would want to know the reason" he stated surprising himself at how emphasized 'really' came out of him.

Kat looked up at him and locked her light blue sapphire eyes on his dark brown ones. She bit her lip and looked down, "You called us useless" she stated softly and just barely being heard by Tommy.

"Me? Who did I call useless?"

"Tanya and I…you said that if _we_ could have dealt with the monster on our own, then the one _you_ guys were fighting would be the smart one. It's because we're girls isn't it? Why did you send us out to battle the monster if you didn't trust us?"

"I do Kat. I trust you, Tanya, Rocky, and Adam. We are all the Zeo Team. I honestly don't see you weaker than Adam. I don't see Tanya weaker than Rocky. I'm really sorry that I came out like a sexist comment Kat. What I meant was dealing with time. We were struggling a lot longer than you guys did, so I thought that the other would have been the weaker one cuz it went down a lot sooner."

Kat remained looking down, not wanting to catch his eyes.

"Kat" he said raising her chin up to have her eyes meet his, "I would have said the same thing if Rocky and Adam had come back too. I don't want you to think that I don't trust you _nor_ Tanya…because I do."

"Really?" she said smiling.

"Yeah…though, I _have_ to admit…most of the time I _am_ worried about you."

"Why's that? I'm sure I can take care of myself" she said not wanting to move her head the slightest bit knowing that if she did, he'd let go of her hand and put his hand down that was now holding the left side of her ear and cheek.

"Because, I don't know what I would do if…if anything were to happen to you" he said as he moved closely toward her.

She slowly made her way toward him as well cocking her head to the right as he lowered his to her left. As she closed her eyes, she could feel Tommy's warm breath making it's way toward her lips.

They both heard a loud crashing sound right beside them. As they turned quickly, Katherine saw Joel standing in front of her window with the angriest look on his face. He had hit the large window with both his hands as he started to walk away.

Katherine instantly got up from the couch and ran out the door.

"Joel!" she called out to him. He turned to take one last look at her before he shook his head and started his motorcycle. "Joel! I'm sorry!" she yelled out again running toward him but having it be too late to still catch up.

He drove off down the street accelerating more and more as the seconds went by.

Katherine stopped and looked out into the distance until she couldn't see the motorcycle.

"I'm sorry" Tommy told her as he came out of the house.

"It's not your fault," she said in a near whisper.

"I shouldn't have…"

"No…it was _my_ fault," she said before taking a step inside. "I'll see you at school tomorrow" she said softly as she turned to close the door.

"Yeah" he said inaudibly before seeing her go inside.


	14. Chapter XIV

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XIV / Gone Bowlin'**

"Man, that was some movie wasn't it?" asked a cheery Rocky while going over and opening the car door for his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I thought Twister was going to be documented and all, but thank God it wasn't, although they could have put more romance in it."

Rocky looked at Sherry with awe. His girlfriend was one who never seemed to like the romantic type.

"Huh?" he questioned.

She looked up at him where she now sat in the car with the door still open.

"Just kidding."

He smiled at her and noticed Tommy, Kat, and Billy walking together heading towards them; and Tanya and Adam walking a few steps behind them laughing yet again at another one of Tanya's jokes.

"So, where do you guys wanna go now?" he asked his friends.

They turned to look at each other.

"I don't know. What time is it?"

"It's barely six thirty" Tommy answered Kat's question.

"Well, how 'bout we head over to the Youth Center. What time does Ernie close?"

"It's a school night, he closes early" Adam answered Tanya.

"How 'bout the bowling alley?" suggested Billy.

"Hey Billy, it's your day today, so, let's go" said an enthusiastic Rocky heading over to the driver seat of his car while the others did the same.

Tommy, Adam, and Billy were heading over to Tommy's truck when a voice stopped them.

"Wanna head over there with us, Adam?" asked Tanya.

Adam turned around to see Tanya's beautiful smile. He smiled and let his head drop a bit shyly.

"Sure" he said in a low voice before heading over to the girls' vehicle.

A couple of minutes inside the drive, each car had a conversation going on.

Inside Rocky's car, Sherry was putting on lip gloss while saying, "So, how do you think Adam's gonna do in the competition?"

"Well…last time I saw him spar, he was completely ready to massacre."

"Oh, please, Adam?"

"Hey, you might not believe it, but Adam is one of the greatest martial artists in Angel Grove. I'm pretty sure if he tried hard enough, he could kick _Tommy's _butt to the next millennium."

"Really?"

"Psht, He already gives him a run for his money."

"So, why didn't _you_ sign up for the competition? Not good enough?" Sherry said in a devious voice.

"Well…actually, I decided to start teaching some kids martial arts after school. The classes start next week and go on for the summer."

"I was just playing with you babe."

"I know; I'm just saying though."

"Oh, and? Is Adam gonna help you out?"

"Actually, he is. You see, he's practicing for the competition these days, and when it's over, he's gonna start teaching along with me and Tommy."

"So, you guys took up two classes, or are you just teaching one?"

"By the time Adam gets back from the competition, he wouldn't have gotten a spot. So Tommy's taking a class on his own, and I'm sharing mine with Adam. Besides, Tommy got his in the morning, since that's when the ballet class is being held and all."

"What does ballet have to do with Tommy?"

Rocky's eyes got wide at sticking his foot in his mouth. Both him and Adam knew that Tommy got the morning class because Kat had said she was teaching the morning ballet class.

"Well…because he was going to see if the teacher could teach him a bit of balancing moves."

"Oh, cut the crap…Tommy took those morning classes because of Kat didn't he?"

"What?"

"I told you to cut it Rocky. Tanya and I both know he likes her. Hell, she has a crush on him too!"

"Really, Kat likes Tommy? He thinks she doesn't."

"Tell me about it, she thinks he doesn't like _her_."

"Yeah, well, he does. But…we should stay out of this though."

"I know…Tanya and I both know better than to say anything. I know you do too, right?"

"Yeah, when it comes to this, I'll keep my mouth shut."

In Tommy's truck, the conversation was nowhere different than Rocky and Sherry's.

"So, why'd you wait until now to tell me?"

"Well, since Rocky and Adam found out, I wanted to tell you too, you know, not to keep you out and stuff."

"Oh, well, don't worry" Billy said with a small chuckle, "I've known you liked Kat since we took you to that snow trip."

"Well, actually, my crush was way before that. It just grew a lot more seeing her in that dress the night of the dinner."

Billy laughed at this and shook his head. "Why don't you just ask her out already?"

"I can't" he answered him.

"Why not?"

"Cuz…I just…can't, that's all."

Billy saw the nervousness in Tommy's eyes. He questioned to himself if Tommy was acting like that with just the thought of asking her out; he could only imagine him at the actual action of doing such a thing.

"Well, okay, but promise me you'll do it."

"What? I can't promise something like that."

"Why not?"

"Cuz…if I do, then I'm gonna have to do it."

"That's the whole point to it."

"But, then I'll be doing it as a promise, and not because I really, really want to."

"Well, you're right about that one."

"I'll just do it when I'm not thinking. I guess that's the best possible way."

"So, basically, you're gonna go up to her with no words in your mouth?"

"Kind of. See, this afternoon after defeating Tohadmorst, we were sorta…gonna…you know…"

"Kiss?" Billy at this point widened his eyes at was his friend was trying to tell him.

"Never mind that…her boyfriend saw us."

"Did you guys kiss?" Billy wanted to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"No…see, we were going to…but that's when Joel saw us through the window.

"Oh, _that's_ why she didn't wanna come out tonight…" Billy pondered.

"Yeah, I think they broke up. I feel really guilty, man."

"Why? It was _her_ boyfriend Tommy, not yours."

Tommy at this laughed at the thought of what Billy just said.

Inside Kat's car, Adam was pretending to listen to the radio as the girls talked about the events of the afternoon.

"And he drove off" Kat told Tanya with a sad look in her eye.

"Sorry girl, but, dang…I don't know what to tell you."

"What's there to say? I almost kissed someone else."

Tanya didn't feel that this was an appropriate topic to be talking about in front of Adam. She knew it made his uneasy at the way she saw him just tapping his hand on her leg and trying to listen to the music.

"How 'bout we try to pick you up?" She asked Kat.

"How's that?"

"By helping you forget about your long lost love…"

"By doing…?"

"Mmm…remember the soccer game that we humiliated the guys in?"

"Yeah!" Kat said laughing.

Adam at this shook his head while smiling at Tanya knowing that she could see him though the visor mirror.

The girls continued to chat about the soccer game. They were gloating at how they horribly embarrassed the guys in the match.

For the rest of the ride, Adam didn't want to say anything at all, knowing that they would quickly gang up on him.

- - -

Tommy and Billy were in the bowling alley at the Angel Bowl n' Arcade. Rocky and Tommy both found a parking space just beside the entrance. Kat on the other hand had to drive about sixty feet away from the door, not being able to find a closer parking.

Both Tommy and Billy were waiting inside the doors sitting on a nearby bench waiting for the others.

"So Tommy, excited about teaching the new Karate class?" asked Billy.

"Yeah man, I can't wait. I just pray that I don't get stuck with any brown or black belts again."

Billy looked at him questioningly, "How come?"

"Well, the last couple of classes I was teaching was a pure white belt class, but three brown belts and a black belt got placed there because of their parents' schedules. So I'm teaching these kids, right, when all of a sudden one of the parents comes stomping in saying, 'how dare you be teaching my son kiddy stuff?' Man, I was so embarrassed."

"Why were you embarrassed?"

Rocky and Sherry soon walked in and saw the two talking.

"Hey, did you see how far Kat parked?" Sherry said not trying to hide her laughter in at all.

"Yeah, it must have been like all the way across the street," Billy said. He was trying very hard to hold in the laughter, but Sherry's face really made him go off.

"Oh man Tommy, you should've seen it" began Rocky, "Kat almost had my spot right, then, out of nowhere I accelerate and took it from her. It was so freakin' funny. I could see from the rear view mirror that she was giving me an ugly look."

At this, Sherry started laughing even more. "Uh-hu, and the best part is I saw her say something to Tanya and Adam and they all started laughing hysterically."

Billy and Tommy both broke out with laughter at having Rocky just hear Sherry's comment and instantly exaggerated jokingly. "What do you mean she said something to Tanya? What'd she say?"

The other three laughed even harder as they saw Kat, Tanya, and Adam walk in through the sliding doors.

Tommy instantly stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "You guys shouldn't be laughing. If I had known Kat was going to have to park that far, I would've given her my spot."

The three that had just entered looked at him with a sly look in their eyes.

"Yeah right Tommy" Tanya began, "you probably would've done the exact same thing that Rocky's dumb ass did."

Sherry, along with Rocky and Tommy laughed at Tanya's comment. Billy on the other hand tried to hide his laughter from the others with no prevail.

"Go ahead Billy, everyone's doing it" Rocky said.

"Don't give in to peer pressure Billy" said Adam, making Kat and Tanya laugh, then finally Billy couldn't hold in the laughter and started laughing hysterically along with the others.

- - -

"Oh no you don't, don't even think about it" Tanya told Rocky while he was going towards her yellow bowling ball not wanting to wait for his ball to come back.

"Come on Tanya, Barney teaches us to share."

"That huge purple dinosaur doesn't know what he's talking about" replied Tanya.

"Yeah" said Sherry going along with Tanya, "he's probable just drunk half of the time he's on the show."

"Why else could he do that annoying show for so long?" questioned Billy rising a laugh out of every one.

Again the guys were playing against the girls with their usual battle of the sexes. Tommy had decided to sit this one out, allowing the others to have an even game. He went to the arcades, which were not so far away from where the other teens were.

Playing Mortal Kombat was his favorite thing to do at the arcades. He kept on winning the same quarter over and over again from beating so many of the rivals in the game.

"Wow, you're really good" came a feminine voice from behind him.

He didn't acknowledge turning around as he was still in a fierce game mode.

"Thanks" he simply said.

"Mind if I join you next game?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Oh, so you _do_ mind?"

Tommy at this turned around not minding to lose his game. "No" he started, "I meant that…"

"Don't worry," she said with a smirk, "I understand."

Tommy saw that it was Deborah Cunningham who was talking to him. She was by far the most popular girl in school having volleyball, basketball, and softball championships under her belt. She was 5'9", with hazel brown eyes, light brown hair, and clear braces on her teeth.

She smiled at him in which she got a smile in return.

"So," said Tommy easily "wanted to play?"

"Well, yeah, if it'll get you to notice me" she said cockily.

"Me notice _you_?" he said while getting two quarters out of his right pocket, "What for?"

Deborah looked in his direction noticing that he wasn't showing the slightest bit of interest towards her, which made her want him even more because it was something she didn't get very often.

Tommy simply gave her a quarter and turned towards the arcade machine again. "So, you ready?" he asked.

"For you, of course" she said trying to sound as sexy as possible.

Tommy turned towards her and gave her a small grin before turning to the game and putting his quarter in.

- - -

"Alright, alright, so you kicked our butts _this_ time" admitted Sherry, "but just wait until you get Tommy on your team and lose Rocky."

The boys were fooling around with the girls and trying to make them mad before the game. They started saying that they were going to win _so_ easily, that the next game they'll get rid of their strongest player and bring in Tommy, which they all knew too well that he wasn't good at bowling at all.

"We were just foolin'," said a hurt Rocky not wanting to leave the game.

"Stop your whining and start the next game, I'll go call Tommy" said Kat, still laughing at Rocky who didn't want to be left out of the next game.

"Oh, alright" he said pouting and went over to the table to insert the players' names.

Upon arriving at the arcade, Kat looked around for a quick second before knowing all too well where he'd be. She went over to the Mortal Kombat arcade in the far corner of the room.

Kat, seeing Tommy with Deborah instantly go a knot in her upper stomach making it hurt; but not for long. Tommy was sitting at a nearby table talking to Deborah and as soon as he saw Kat, he quickly got up and asked, "Hey is the game over?"

"Yeah, everyone's waiting for you for the next one" she said looking at Deborah as he was coming up to her.

"Oh, alright" he said before he turned around and waved at Deborah, "see you some other time." He turned around again and walked out of the arcade room very close to Katherine making Deborah's eyes just glow with fury at how unattractive he made her feel.

- - -

"Dang, what took you guys so long?" said an annoyed Rocky.

Tommy gave him a look in which looked as if he didn't understand why Rocky was so testy.

Katherine at his remark stated, "What are you talking about? I just left a minute ago."

"Don't mind him, Kat," said Sherry, "he's just sore that we took him out of the game for Tommy to come in."

Tommy then looked at Rocky and said, "Well, if you wanna play then go ahead and play. I wanted to play pool any ways; I just don't have anyone to play with."

"I'd play with you, but then they'd be uneven" said Kat.

"Well, _I_ wouldn't mind playing Tommy," said Deborah who had just gotten there and was listening to their conversation.

"Really? You wouldn't?" asked Tommy in Deborah's direction.

Kat at this point was starting to get annoyed, mad, and irritated of not being able to tell Deborah to back off. She was starting to make a face before she felt someone grab her hand.

"That's great" said Tommy taking Kat's hand without even thinking about it, he then turned to the others, "guys, you have a stand in. Kat and I are gonna go play pool."

Tommy pulled on her hand a bit making her walk behind him as he led the way up the stairs to the poolroom. Deborah at this raised an eyebrow and looked at the group she was standing in front of. They all looked at her without saying a word. There was so much dead, awkward silence between them, one could smell it; and it wasn't a pleasant smell.

"So" Billy finally broke the silence, "who's ready for more?"

They all mentally sighed at having someone speak out to start the game and the group allowed Deborah to join them without any hesitation. She was about to tell them that she wanted to leave, but couldn't help the feeling of getting Tommy alone; so she thought that the best way to do that was to become friends with the rest of the group.

- - -

Tommy and Kat arrived upstairs still holding hands. They had each realized they were holding hands about half way up the steps but neither wanted to let go, so they just pretended not to notice towards one another and just kept walking upstairs.

_Oh my God, I'm holding her hand_, Tommy thought, _how in the hell did I do 'that'? I told Billy I do things better while I'm not thinking._

_He's holding my hand_, thought Kat, _it's so soft and warm. God, does he have nice hands. I wonder what he'll do once we get up there. I just hope he doesn't let go._

Once they took that final step upstairs entering the poolroom, they both simultaneously let go of their hands and were both mentally banging their heads on the walls for doing so.

"So, where should we go?" he managed to say still being a bit choked up from the incident.

She raised her eyebrows, not knowing what to say, _to a corner and make out_, she thought. "Umm, I don't know, how 'bout that one?" she said pointing to the farthest table on the corner of the room.

"Alright" he said with a smile crossing his lips.

He received a smile in return and they both passed two columns of two pool tables to get to theirs.

"So, loser racks" Kat said while handing Tommy the triangle.

He gave her a look which made her smile, "What makes you think I'm gonna lose?" he asked.

"I'll get the sticks," she said as she went over not paying attention to him.

"Come on, answer me" he said when she came back. He was retrieving the balls from the corner pockets as well as the ones on the sides.

Katherine went over and reclined the sticks on the wall and helped him with the rest that were in the other corners. After getting one, she rolled it over to his side where he began to rack. "Let's see" she began, "first of all…" she paused for a second while he came over to her after removing the triangle.

"Cat's got your tongue?" he asked getting closer to her.

"No, I just don't want to hurt your feelings that's all" she said confidently.

Katherine was standing between the sticks and Tommy. He reached over and grabbed one meeting her eyes and pausing a bit after getting it. They both stayed there just staring into one another's eyes for a second or two.

Tommy took a deep breath and with it took a scent of her beautiful soft smell that he loved so much. Her hair smelled as if he was in heaven, and her body not to mention was paradise for him.

He swallowed hard before managing a soft tone saying, "So, who breaks?"

"Well," she said, still having her eyes locked into his without the near thought of looking away, "you racked, so I'll break."

A smile then came from his mouth that made her smile as well.

He looked down shyly laughing while saying, "I see, the man does all the labor around here, while the woman gets to do the fun part."

The trance was broken in that instant and she laughed alongside with him while just simply stating, "Yup, it's about time you start learning the way of life," she said as she punched him softly on the stomach which he loved.

"You're spending _way_ too much time with Tanya" he acknowledged making her chuckle a bit before saying, "Fine then Cleopatra, break then," he simply said while stepping back to give her some room.

"Now you're speaking like a true man" she joked before she got into position to start the game.


	15. Chapter XV

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XV / Shopping Center**

Adam was sparring with Tommy on the mats of the Youth Center as the two were talking as they were throwing punches and kicks in one another's directions.

"Let me get this straight" said Adam as he threw a right punch at Tommy's direction, "hee-ya! Every time you block a move, you want me to…ugh, to hit you with another right away?"

"Yeah, zeek! It'll help you with…ya!... your…ugh…offensive skills."

"Alright" he said as he went towards Tommy with a tornado kick.

At that, Tanya and Kat walked into the Youth Center towards Rocky and Sherry's direction. They were sitting at their usual table and the girls went over to take a seat.

"Hey!" said Tanya as Kat went to sit down.

"So what are you two up to?" asked Kat as Tanya went over to sit down next to her towards her right.

"Nothing much" answered Sherry.

Upon seeing Tanya and Kat enter the Youth Center Tommy stopped sparring.

"What's up man?" asked Adam.

"Uh, Adam, you mind if we take a break? I'm getting kinda tired."

"We barely started," he said before noticing the girls sitting down, "I mean, yeah, I'm kinda tired myself."

They both went over to sit at the table.

"Looking good Adam" complimented Tanya.

"Thanks, Tommy's been helping me out a lot" he said with a shy smile.

Adam sat on Tanya's right, while Tommy went over to sit towards Kat's left.

"So, Kat" he started to speak to her before hearing the six-tone beeping sound coming out of his communicator.

The five just looked around before looking in Sherry's direction.

"What's that beeping sound I'm always hearing, or am I just going crazy?" asked Sherry after having heard it days before.

"Umm…it's my beeper, I kinda forgot to do something" said Tommy.

"Oh yeah, we promised your uncle we'd wash his cars" Rocky stated making the others look at him in awe realizing he thought quickly.

"Oh, well, need any help?" Sherry asked.

"Ah, no thanks. My uncle thinks five of us are coming. He gets really cranky if I take more people" said Tommy.

"Okay, well…"

The other teens started to get up quickly not recognizing that Sherry was starting to speak again.

"Man, are you guys in a hurry to wash cars" she noted.

Kat and Tanya looked at each other and looked back towards her. They both just smiled.

"What can we say, we love washing cars I guess" said Adam quickly.

"Well, see you guys later then," said Sherry, noticing they were walking towards the exit now.

"See you Sherry," said Kat.

"Bye" Tanya said.

Rocky gave her a quick kiss.

Adam turned and waved as Tommy did as well.

- - -

"My dear" said his wife Machina, "I do love it when you get so incredibly powerful like that."

"Your grace, Hangle is ready for the destruction of the rangers" said Klank coming into the balcony as well.

"What have I told you about disturbing me while I'm talking to my family?"

King Mondo yelled at his server.

"I do apologize sir, but…"

"Then go…"

"But what about Hangle?"

"I said go! I don't want Hangle out there just yet. Let the Cogs fight those measly brats right now. Then when they least expect it, we'll hit them with our monster" Mondo finished.

"Yes sire, whatever you say sir" said Klank bowing down to his emperor for yet the umpteenth time while not giving his back to him and exiting the balcony.

"Now, where were we before that less than horrible service man interrupted us? Ah yes my dear, you were telling me how great I was…"

- - -

"What is it Zordon?" asked a very serious Tommy upon arriving at the Power Chamber.

"RANGERS, THE MACHINE EMPIRE HAS STRUCK YET AGAIN. KING MONDO HAS SENT AN ARMY OF COGS TO DESTRUPT THE SHOPPING CENTER IN THE MIDDLE OF ANGEL GROVE."

"Is there a monster their too?" asked Tanya.

"NO TANYA, YET I BELIEVE KING MONDO WILL SEND ONE DOWN AS SOON AS HE CAN."

The teens nodded.

"Alright Zordon, we'll handle this" said Tommy going over and getting in the center front of everyone else "It's morphin' time!"

- - -

The Shopping Center was chaotic. There were Cogs chasing people all over the center of the benches while the others were merely hopping around scaring innocent children and pedestrians.

"Alright metal heads, now it's _our_ turn to mess with _you_!" yelled Tommy as the five morphed teens went into the shopping center running full speed after having teleported there.

"Oh no!" cried Zeo Pink, "There's some going into the snack bar!"

"No! The food!" screamed Zeo Blue as he sprinted as fast as he could towards the snack bar.

Three more Cogs were heading into the coat department in which Zeo Yellow went into pursuit for them.

Two Cogs ran into a nearby clothing boutique as Zeo Green ran after them.

"Hey, stop right there" he yelled.

Four Cogs ran and jumped off the rail from the second floor they were on. They all jumped onto the floor as Zeo Red took charge.

"You stay here and take care of these goons while I go handle those" he said running off.

"Right" said Zeo Pink charging at one who was stealing an old woman's purse. "Leave 'er alone" she yelled as she kicked him with a fierce 'Hee-Yah' getting blown his way.

- - -

"Skull, I think you and me should just head over to the garage and finish working on that bike," said Bulk as he and Skull were still wondering how to fix the Patrol Bike.

"But Bulky, the bike's running fine" countered a defensive Skull.

"Skull, we came over here on foot. That thing keeps breaking down everywhere we go. Now let's go…" he said taking Skull's collar and pulling him.

"On foot?"

"How else moron?"

"The patrol bike."

"The patrol bike is not here dimwit."

"But it was _your_ idea to walk Bulky."

"Exactly, because I was afraid it was going to leave us half ways, now come on."

- - -

"Hee-Ya!" came a profound blow out of Zeo Blue in the Snack Bar while kicking a Cog on the abdomen.

The Cog was struck so fiercely that it completely fell backwards onto the floor causing another Cog to trip and fall on top of a nearby table breaking it in half making nachos, popcorn, and soda fly into the air.

In the coat department, Zeo Yellow was too busy chasing one of the Cogs which had put a black fur coat on and was now chasing innocent people all over the store. As Zeo Yellow caught up to him, she quickly punched the Cog in the back of the head causing it to fall forward.

Zeo Yellow anticipated the fall and leaped quickly making her fall on her feet in front of the now broken Cog. As she was going to look around for another one, a different Cog came up behind her and kicked Zeo Yellow on her back. She yelled but not before remembering one of her many lessons with Adam; which she made a move to while turning around and kicking the Cog in the face making it fall. This made Zeo Yellow fall as well yet swiftly got up to attack yet again.

In the clothing boutique, Zeo Green was now doing a back flip while dodging a swipe to the floor from one of the Cogs. As he stood there noticing the next move of the metallic robot, he then thought quickly into his competition. _This could be great practice for me_, he thought as the Cog came at him yet again.

Zeo Green at this punched forward and made the Cog step backward a bit while going towards him with yet another kick. This kick was directed towards the Cog's chest; but having it bend forward, the kick landed directly on his face making the Cog fly to Zeo Green's right side and fell into a stack of well hung designer clothes.

In the middle of the Shopping Center, Zeo Pink wasn't having such luck in getting rid of most of the Cogs. She knew she couldn't get her disc out for fear of hurting innocent people that were still amazed and just stood around watching in awe.

She had a Cog in front of her, as she went towards it he lifted up his eye cover up to its forehead and blasted Zeo Pink with its laser. She fell back and was grasped by two Cogs. As one held her right arm and the other held her left. She tried to break free but did not prevail. She then thought quickly and used them both as supports as she jumped on each of their thighs and did a front flip causing the Cogs to flip as well yet letting her fall on her feet like she intended and them falling to the ground shaking off the electrical current going through them.

On the first floor, the Cogs could see Zeo Red had jumped from the second floor and fell on one of the Cogs purposely. He spun a kick in another Cog's direction and went towards another Cog with a combination of two punches and ending it with a tornado kick.

He wasn't sure if the three Cogs he had defeated were the only ones in that area, so he decided to run towards the main entrance. Sure enough, there was another Cog blasting at the entrance door with its lasers. Zeo Red ran towards it yet saw the Cog turn around at the sound of his steps and completely destroyed the parts where the lasers were still running from the doors towards Zeo Red.

The Cog hit Zeo Red right on the chest making him fall yet got back up with success and got his Zeo Blaster out in the process. He shot at the Cog making it fly backward and hitting the wall behind it so hard it dismantled in the impact.

Zeo Red then looked around and noticed that there were still people there and ordered them to get out of the Shopping Center for fear of it collapsing or them just getting hurt for any reason.

When Zeo Red took the stairs quickly to get to the second floor, he noticed Zeo Blue helping out Zeo Pink in the process of the destruction of the Cogs. He then noticed Zeo Yellow coming out of the coat department. He failed to see Zeo Green, so he decided to go into the clothing boutique to see if everything was okay with him and to see if he needed any help.

- - -

"So guys, ready to concentrate on a very well deserved prize?" asked Bulk having two big T-Bone steaks hanging from his pointer and thumbs.

"MMMM!" said an amnestied Rito.

"Whatever you want master!" said Goldar, which was in the same state of being.

"All you guys have to do is fix this bike," said Skull while pounding on the bike's seat having dust come out of it.

Both Bulk and Skull started coughing as Rito went over to the bike and reviewed it.

"No problem" said Goldar with his roaring voice.

"Yup" added Rito, "We'll have this baby running in not time."

"Well, see that you do, because we need it," said a tired Bulk now wanting to go over to the couch and sit down.

"Yeah, we need it" Skull said laughing.

"So, anything we can get for you boys while you wait?" asked Rito.

"Umm, sure, get me something for my feet, they're killing me" Bulk stated.

"All-Right!" said Rito as he went over to the other side of the garage and got a pillow that was covered with dust. He hit the pillow removing the dust from it and wiped his right hand on his apron. He turned and walked over to Bulk savoring that juicy steak he held as his mouth became very watery.

- - -

"I don't get it, why would Mondo send the Cogs out like that just out of the blue?" asked Rocky as the teens were now in the Power Chamer.

"RANGERS, I FEAR THIS IS NOT THE END OF MONDO'S PLAN" stated their mentor.

"Yeah, you could say that again," said Tommy as a bit of disappointment showed in his speech.

"Rangers" said Alpha softly, "we think it's better if you went home and got some sleep. It's getting pretty late already."

The teens nodded and walked over to the center of the Power Chamber.

"Call us if you need anything," said Tanya before yawning.

"Yeah, we're gonna be on the alert at all times" said Adam.

"WE KNOW RANGERS. JUST KNOW THAT BOTH ALPHA AND I TRUST THAT YOU WILL."

The teens all looked at each other and nodded before teleporting out of the Power Chamber.


	16. Chapter XVI

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XVI / A Kissing Inconvenience**

The five Zeo teens were now walking in the park taking Zordon's orders of going home and getting some rest to await the upcoming battle from the Machine Empire.

"I can't believe we just have to wait," said Rocky.

"Yeah" started Kat as she removed a strand of blond hair that had swayed over her face with the light breeze; "it's like a waiting game."

"And we don't even have the upper hand" Tanya said sadly having her arms crossed in front of her.

"Well" began Tommy going over to his parked truck, "I gotta go. I have to wake up early in the morning."

"What for?" asked a curious Adam.

"Class" he said.

"Oh yeah, I have to teach class in the morning too" Kat remembered.

"Umm…you need a ride?" he asked shyly.

"Well, I don't know…" she said looking over at Tanya.

"I don't wanna leave yet," said Tanya slyly knowing that Kat would leave her the keys to the car and wanting her to go with Tommy.

"Umm…okay, let me just give Tanya the keys" she said with her accent getting thicker as she spoke.

"Okay, I'll…uhh…wait for you," said Tommy having the statement come out more of a question than anything.

Kat went towards her friend and got her spare key from Tanya's jeans pocket. "What?" asked Tanya as she felt Kat going over and retrieving the key.

"I'm gonna get my purse. Besides, the house keys are in the car" she said mentioning that her original car keys are in there as well.

"Oh, okay" she simply said.

As Kat made her way back to Tanya with her burgundy purse over her left shoulder she could see Tanya's face beginning to grin.

"Not a word" said Kat as she handed Tanya the spare and the original keys which also had the house keys.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything…until we get home" she said before adding the second part as deviously as possible.

Kat turned to look at her and shook her head while smiling, "I'll ask how it went with Adam then," she said as conniving as Tanya.

Tanya at this gasped and just took in the compliment.

- - -

"No no no," said Rito, "you're doing it all wrong."

Goldar looked in Rito's direction and just shook his head, "Listen, I'm the brains in this operation" he told him.

"Well excuse _me _brains but you're doing it all wrong!" he said sarcastically.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Goldar asked him in the same sarcastic manner.

"This" said Rito hitting the bike's motor with a hammer making Bulk and Skull wake up from their slumber and hearing the bike roar in turning on.

"Ha!" said Rito as Bulk and Skull got up.

"You did it!" exclaimed Bulk giving the two steaks to the monsters.

"Yeah, you did it!" said Skull with a shrieking laughter.

"So, what do you think about me now?" Rito asked in Goldar's direction.

"I still think you're an idiot that has a lot to learn from a genius like me" Goldar said stuffing a huge piece of meat inside his mouth.

- - -

"So, what time are you heading over to the Youth Center?" Tommy asked Kat as he was driving her home.

"Maybe around six or so" she answered lowering her head a bit.

"Wow, six huh? But class doesn't start until seven" he stated.

"Yeah I know, but I usually need an hour to set things up."

"Oh, well…would you mind if I…offered to take you? I mean, we're both heading over there any ways…"

Kat at this looked down at her hands and a shy 'sure' came out of her lips.

"So, what time should I pick you up?" Tommy said feeling a little better now.

Kat, still looking down at her hands responded, "How does 6:15 sound?"

"Great" said Tommy as he pulled up to her driveway. "Looks like no one's home" he said noticing all the lights off in her house.

"Yeah" she said questioning why the lights were off. "I guess…oh no!" she said.

"What?" asked Tommy frantically parking the truck in front of the garage door.

"I gave the house keys to Tanya!"

"God, I thought something was wrong. We'll just wait," he said easily.

Both Kat and Tommy got off and headed towards her door. She rang the doorbell and knocked a couple of times to make sure that there wasn't anybody there.

"So…" said Tommy upon seeing there was no answer.

Kat bit down on her lip and looked at him embarrassingly, "I'm sorry" she began, "you can go home if you want. I'll just wait here. They shouldn't be long..." she trailed on.

Tommy at this shook his head and simply said with a warm smile, "No, it's alright. There's no way I'm gonna let you sit here all alone."

Kat smiled at him as they both sat on the swinging bench on the porch.

- - -

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm leaving" Rocky stated already getting bored at watching Adam teach Tanya a new kata.

"Where are you going?" asked Tanya stopping and in the process making Adam stop as well.

"I'm going home," said Rocky gathering himself up from the tree he was reclining himself on.

"I was gonna give you guys a ride home" Tanya said as she looked at Adam then back at Rocky.

"If you wanna leave, then let's go," Adam said sounding a little disappointed.

"Nah, you guys stay" Rocky said walking away. "Besides, it's barely seven o'clock. I could walk home."

"Are you sure?" asked Tanya still not convinced.

"Yeah" he said with a chuckle, "keep at the katas, you're looking great."

Adam at this came up to Tanya and put a hand on her shoulder making her blush a bit at feeling weird when he did so.

"He'll be fine," he said trying to reassure her. "So" he said looking in her direction, "ready for more?"

"Yeah" she told him still blushing yet thanking nature for the light darkness of not making it so obvious.

Adam patted her shoulder twice and rubbed her upper back while smiling at her making both of them redden and look down before getting back to practice.

- - -

"It's really getting late" pondered Kat as she looked up at the stars. She was now sitting on the low end of the porch banister with her hands holding it on her sides and having Tommy behind her standing there for support.

"Well, it's not _that_ late. I bet it's only like eight or something," he said guessing at the time because of the lack of not having a watch.

Kat yawned and tilted her head back in the process letting it fall gently on Tommy's left shoulder.

"Sleepy?" he asked with a smile.

"Mmm…hmm" she said closing her eyes and feeling his warm hands come from her hands towards caressing her upper arms up to her shoulders and back again. "I'm sorry you had to stay here, Tommy. It's been hours," she said while opening her eyes and again looking at the stars, as she did not remove her head from its resting-place.

"Don't worry about it Kat…and it's only been like an hour," he said as he massaged her shoulders gently. _Take a chance_, he thought to himself, "Besides" he continued, "there's no other person I'd rather be with right now."

Kat felt his hands go from her shoulders down to her hands softly as she couldn't believe what she just heard. She turned her head towards her right picking it up from his shoulder as he looked down to her eyes.

"Really?" was the only thing she could say at this point from still being in shock by the comment. She then noticed him nod slightly with a faint smile as she felt his warm breath on her lips moving closer towards her. She then closed her eyes and inched closer to him. As there lips were but a centimeter away from one another they both felt a hot light flashing towards them then away making them both squint and look at the direction of the light.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"My parents" she said as he helped her to her feet getting her by her hand and letting her sit up straight.

"Oh" he said with disappointment in his voice.

"I wonder what they're doing here so late" she said not wanting Tommy to let go of her hand at this point.

"I should go," he said as he noticed both parents coming up the porch stairs.

"Well hello Tommy" said June Hillard, Kat's mom, as she noticed Tommy holding Kat's hand still so she decided to go ahead and open the door instead of a hug like usual.

"Hi Mrs. Hillard" he said as he noticed her going over towards the door.

"Tommy, what are you doing here at this time?" asked Bruce Hillard in a stern voice as he too noticed his daughter holding hands with Tommy. Bruce, in the other hand, wanting them to let go, stretched out his hand for a handshake.

Tommy at this instantly let go of Kat's hand and shook Bruce's hand without hesitation. "Umm…I was just keeping Kat company sir."

"Oh, where's Tanya?" he asked in his daughter's direction.

"She's at the park. Tommy gave me a ride home," she said easily.

Bruce noticed Kat being calm and looked over at Tommy who looked nothing but shaky and nervous; which made Bruce wonder what was going through Tommy's mind at the moment.

"Well, we'll take it from here" he told Tommy motioning with his head towards Tommy's truck.

Tommy instantly took the hint and nodded. "Okay. Bye Mrs. Hillard" he said before walking down the steps.

"See you tomorrow?" Kat asked him as she was going inside the house as well.

"Yeah, 6:15 right?"

"Yeah" she said with a smile and a wave seeing him get in his truck and wave back.

- - -

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," said Tanya as Adam was closing the door to the convertible.

"Yeah. Umm…thanks for the ride Tanya."

"No problem Adam. Anytime" she stated smiling at him making him blush even more.

Adam walked up his driveway and upon seeing him open the door and wave goodbye to her, Tanya turned on the ignition and waved goodbye as well as she drove off to her house.

- - -

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Tanya as she sat on Kat's bed now showered and ready for bed.

"I know, and as soon as we were going to kiss, they drive up."

Tanya at this couldn't help but smile and laugh at her friend's inconvenience. "Well, maybe something will happen tomorrow."

"I doubt it Tanya. The way my dad treated Tommy, I bet he won't want anything to do with me."

"Oh come on Kat, you can't be serious. Hey, if he really _does_ like you, then he won't care."

"All I know is that I'm not even gonna think about the slightest chance of us getting together anymore."

"Whatever! Like if _that _would ever happen."

"Hey, there are other things in my life other than Tommy" she said trying to defend herself.

"Um Hmm. Like what? Ballet? Which you're gonna be doing tomorrow drooling all over him as he teaches his class."

"I'll have you know that teaching ballet is the one thing out of many that takes my mind off of him."

"Whatever you say," said Tanya not trying to hide her sarcasm in at all. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Hey wait!"

"What?"

"You know what."

"Don't start. I didn't even get close enough for a handshake with Adam."

"Oh, sorry about that."

"Ah, it's alright. I guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands of course."

"Like always."

"You know it" Tanya said as she headed out the door.

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight"

"Don't let the Tommy dreams bite" Tanya said poking her head in Kat's room yet removing it just in time to dodge a pillow coming at her.


	17. Chapter XVII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XVII / To Date or Not to Date…**

"Okay everyone, now bow" Tommy said while finishing his lesson for the day. The twelve kids bowed to their sensei and stayed in rank.

"Alright, I'll see you back here next week at seven" he said, letting the kids go off to their respective places. Some went with parents who had just walked in, others went to get their sacks, some to the restrooms, and the other few to wait for their parents outside.

Tommy looked over to Kat who was too finishing up her lesson. He had remembered the night before, which made him grin at the events and especially at what would've been.

"Alright girls just stretch out and we're done for today" she said going over to retrieve her communicator from her bag. As she did so, she sensed someone staring at her and turned in Tommy's direction. She smiled upon seeing his eyes on her at which she got a smile in return.

Tommy turned around and started picking up the mats embarrassed at being caught staring at her. Though is was clear now that it wasn't just a spur of the moment when they were going to kiss the first time; the second 'almost-kiss' confirmed that to him.

- - -

"Nice one, you're getting a lot better in no time" Adam told Tanya as he finished doing a kata alongside her. He had called her early in the morning to see is she'd like to practice some sparring with her to help her and him. She accepted and were both now in the park enjoying their surroundings for a great workout.

"Thanks" she said with amusement, "a student is just as good as their teacher."

Adam at this smiled and looked down before telling her the next kata they were going to do.

By the end of their kata, Adam was feeling somewhat shy at this point at what Tanya had said. "Tommy and Kat should be finishing up with their classes by now" he stated wanting to change the subject before Tanya continued on the same one like he knew she would.

"Yeah" she began as they started the same kata over again for the now ninth time, "yet I don't know why this girl took up that class if she still has to go to ballet practice."

"So…what about you? Doing something today?" he said trying to get to know more about her.

"Na', I was thinking of working on some songs I've been writing, but I could do that if it's the weekend or not."

"Yeah, I bet you can. You're really talented."

"Thanks…but you know, you're not too bad yourself."

"Really" he said in more of a question than anything, somewhat wanting to hear more come out of her lips.

"Yeah, you're a triple threat actually."

"Triple? How's that?"

"Well, you're good at martial arts, rangering, and…you're cute" she added in slyly.

Adam at this got extremely red with shyness as he instantly stopped doing his kata at getting caught off guard and looked in Tanya's direction.

- - -

"Looking good" Tommy told Kat as she was coming out of the girls' locker room showered and dressed as he had done moments before.

"Thanks" she said before looking up at him again, "I saw you working with Arnie. You're really good with kids." She complimented him at regaining Arnie's hopes of getting back on the mat to spar with a bigger boy.

"Thanks" he said shyly before taking yet another big chance, "Listen Kat, I was thinking that maybe we could do something later on?"

Tommy felt a burden disappearing after finally, after so many times of trying, asked Kat out on a date. Having yesterday's events happen, it wasn't so hard this time to ask her out. He felt for sure that Kat was going to say yes towards his invitation having him sense her kiss reciprocating the day before.

"Yeah, sure" she said as she picked up her bag, "I'll see if Tanya wants to go too" she added unthinkingly.

Upon hearing her response, Tommy became completely baffled at this. Did she not realize he had asked her out on a date; or was that just _her_ way of nicely declining going out with him?

"Sure" he said hiding his pain, "I'll see if Adam wants to go since Rocky's going out with Sherry tonight."

- - -

"I can't believe you have to leave to Stone Canyon…you're gonna be the enemy now," said Sherry as she sat down with her friend to have a drink after their two-mile jog.

"Tell me about it" said the red headed petite girl.

"I mean, come on…we have like what? Two years knowing each other."

"Well, that falls under _your_ category only cuz you're a sophomore. Just imagine how all the rest of them feel that we're seniors. We've playing together since freshman year."

"Ugh, parents…" Sherry said while rolling her eyes and getting up to practice drills.

- - -

"_Mija_, where's Rocky?" asked Mrs. DeSantos.

"I don't know mom, I think he's still in bed" her seven year old daughter said.

"Oh, well, go call him. I want him to eat breakfast and not bother me later on," she said as she wiped her hands on her apron.

"Okay" said the little tanned girl with a devilish grin as she ran up the stairs to wake her brother.

- - -

"Umm…thanks," said Adam as he looked into Tanya's eyes.

"Anytime" she countered looking him over from head to toe flirtatiously.

"So, ready for another kata?" Adam asked her still not being able to look in another direction.

"Sure" she said as she stepped over to him. "But I have a better one." Tanya moved even closer to him this time and grabbed both his hands into hers.

"What's this one called?" asked Adam smiling now.

"It's called" she said as she spread open his hands and placed hers in front of his, "look into her eyes" she finished while she raised both their hands into the air and locked them before bringing them back down.

Adam at this got extremely confident yet couldn't help but look down.

Tanya cocked her head to her right and met his eyes as she saw him smile.

"I…I really…" he started before noticing Tanya now coming closer to him.

He too inched closer now wanting to kiss her before his communicator went off.

They both let go of each other's grasp quickly and she looked into his communicator as he spoke. "This is Adam, come in" he said.

- - -

"Rocky!" said Violeta as she jumped onto her brother's back waking him up disrupting his dream abruptly and making him yell at her.

"What's wrong with you?" he said in more of an order than a question.

"Mom wants you downstairs," she said giggling.

"Why do you have to wake me up like that?" he asked her not changing his tone.

"Because you sleep like a rock and that's the only way to wake a huge mountain up!" she yelled back at him as she saw her big brother getting up quickly as he threw the blankets monstrously to the side which she knew was her cue to run.

Rocky started running after her before hearing his communicator on his wrist sound a too familiar tone.

- - -

"They're showing Dumb and Dumber next week" said Tommy carrying on the conversation with Katherine in his truck.

"Yeah, I heard about that. They said it was supposed to be a really funny movie," she said as she pulled down the visor to fix her lip-gloss.

"I was thinking that we could all go see it when it came out," he said.

"Sure, sounds like fun" she said as she looked at herself in the mirror before thinking straight now, _Oh my God! Did he just ask me out on a date a while ago?_

Tommy's communicator went off causing her thoughts and insults to herself to be broken and decided to pick up the call herself having Tommy drive the truck and allowing him to park it on the side.

- - -

"What is he doing Zordon?" asked Tommy as the teens saw Hangle elevating the earth towards the ocean.

"HE IS WANTING TO THROW EVERYTHING INTO THE OCEAN TO DESTROY ANGEL GROVE" Zordon stated the obvious.

"How do we defeat something like that?" asked Tanya to no one yet still having someone answer her.

"There's only one way to find out," said Rocky looking over at Tommy's direction.

At this, Tommy nodded his head and looked at the rest of his team having them all nod in unison knowing that they were going to morph to defeat the monster.

- - -

Sherry was beginning to feel a bit tired when the coach called the team over to have a pep talk with all of them.

"Listen guys" he began, "I know that some of you have to do some things during the club break so what I'm going to do is give you guys a three-day vacation before we start practice again."

As soon as he said the word 'vacation', all the girls began to smile…some even began to hoot.

"That doesn't mean" he continued, "that you can slack off for a whole week. I'm gonna let you guys have a week off but you're going to have to help me here and practice for at least an hour a day wherever you guys are."

The girls all nodded their head somewhat promising their coach of their deal being happy that they were going to get a week vacation from soccer.

- - -

"Hee-Ya!" came from Zeo Green as he battled one of the many Cogs surrounding Hangle as he did his work.

"Tommy, we need to get close to him!" yelled Zeo Blue towards their leader.

"I know! Zeek, ah Ya! There's no way around them!" Zeo Red said as he took down two Cogs.

"Yaw!" yelled Zeo Pink as she kicked one of the Cogs on the stomach.

"I wish, ha ya, we had our equipment right about now!" Zeo Yellow said as she spun kicked two Cogs at a time dropping them quickly. The team had given their Disc, Double Clubs, Axes, Hatchets, and Sword to Billy. He was working on them for extra power to be released from them.

"Guys" said Zeo Red as he went over to them, "I have an, ah ya, idea."

The group began to listen not taking their fighting stance off guards.

"Tanya, Rocky and Kat" he said while getting closer to them, "take out your Zeo Pistols and pave a way for Adam and I to get through, zeek, ha ya, the Cogs!"

"RIGHT" the group said in unison as Zeo Yellow, Blue, and Pink retrieved their Zeo Pistols and started shooting at the Cogs to open a way for Zeo Red and Green to get through to the monster.

- - -

"Umm Skull, what do you think you're doing?" asked an already annoyed Bulk towards his protégé.

Skull snorted in Bulk's direction hinting an all too noticeable and predictable answer, "What do you think?"

"I think you're an idiot…but then again" said Bulk standing up and going over to get his drink from the bar where he saw Ernie placing it, "you already _knew_ that."

"Hey Bulk" Skull said ignoring the insult for yet the fifth time today, "where do you think Goldar and Rito are?"

"What do you mean?" asked his best friend as he went over to sit down next to Skull.

"I mean I saw them leave this morning, but I don't know where."

Bulk noticed his friend's innocent answer yet still demanded more from him, "You idiot! You mean to tell me that Rito and Goldar haven't been in your garage since this morning?"

At this Skull laughed a bit and answered in a very unrefined manner, "Sha, yeah" before once again chewing on his massive wad of gum.

Bulk at this looked directly into Skull's eyes, he opened his mouth to insult him once more but decided to grab him by his shirt and drag him off as usual out of the Youth Center.

"Boys, so glad to bump into you" Lt. Stone told the boys as he caught them just outside the Youth Center's entrance.

"Oh, hi" they said in unison before stating, "bye."

"Wait" he told them as they stopped.

"Yes sir?" Bulk asked him not letting go of a bent over Skull.

"I have to go to a special convention to speak to some detectives. He'll help us get you guys your licenses."

"Really?" Bulk asked him with disbelief.

"Yup" Lt. Stone counted as he grabbed his shirt collar, "though I have to say…I don't want to make a bad impression on my colleague."

"What are you getting at?" Skull asked him coldly.

"Quiet Skull" Bulk said pulling of his friend's shirt collar, "What he means to say sir, is…what do you mean?"

"Well, I don't want to have anyone think we're running a loose shift. My car is a little dirty and I was thinking…"

"Enough said sir" Bulk answered him as he straightened Skull out, "We'll have that car shiny in no time."

"See that you do" Lt. Stone said as he threw Bulk the car keys and walked into the Youth Center.


	18. Chapter XVIII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XVIII / Hangle**

"Whoa!" yelled a very tired Zeo Red as his body somersaulted in the air and hit a nearby building.

"Ooh, that's _gotta_ hurt," said Zeo Blue noticing Zeo Red's injury. He got his Zeo Blaster and fired at the Cog that was coming towards him in accelerated speed.

Blue, Pink, and Yellow Zeos fired at the Cogs as told hours ago as their leader and friend went towards the monster, Hangle. The rangers had succeeded getting rid of the Cogs, but the monster was using his tilting powers, which were coming from the staff he held against the rangers.

"Oh no!" screamed Zeo Pink as she saw Zeo Green getting electrocuted by the staff.

Zeo Yellow turned at the sound of her friend's cry and her crush's wail, "Adam!" she screamed as she kicked a Cog on the head with such intense strength surprising even herself. She ran towards the hurt ranger's direction.

Their leader at this ran towards the monster and took out his Zeo Blaster before he noticed Hangle turning his staff towards him.

"Tommy, watch out!" Zeo Pink yelled in his direction yet still knowing deep inside that it was too late.

Seeing this, Zeo Blue tried to stop the electrical energy from reaching his friend by going over to shove him out of the way.

Hagle's staff overpowered the laser that was thrown in his direction and started electrocuting both the Blue and Red rangers.

- - -

"What are you guys doing?" asked an exhausted Skull.

"We've been looking all over for you guys," said Bulk trying to catch his breath.

"Were you guys walking all this time?" Rito noticed as the two were sitting on a picnic table in the park playing SlapJack.

"No, we took Lt. Stone's car, why?" answered Skull, before asking his question.

"Couldn't you have used your Patrol Bike to go around the city?" Rito asked not looking up from the game as he put down a Queen of Hearts.

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged knowing that they could've.

"Never mind what we were doing, didn't Skull ask you guys a question?" demanded Bulk.

"What does it look like we're doing?" Goldar said as he lifted both his hands showing the game that was going on.

"Yeah, so I suggest you guys leave us alone. We cleaned, we cooked, _and_ we baked. We're taking a break." Rito said slapping the wrong card.

Both Bulk and Skull looked at one another again then looked back at their monsters as they both raised one eyebrow.

"Oh! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" said Rito as he picked the pile up and put it in his left hand, "why?"

"You just said it…because you're stupid." Goldar said as he placed down yet another card.

"We need you guys to do something…quick" Bulk told them before explaining the washing of the car.

- - -

"What do you suggest we do darling?" asked a very sensitive Machina.

"What do you mean dear? The rangers are losing" pondered King Mondo.

"Yes love, but that's exactly the point."

"Yeah dad" Prince Sprocket cut in as usual. "If you make the monster grow, he'll get rid of the rangers for sure!"

"Oh please, why not let him finish them off like that sire?" question Klank.

"Quiet you imbecile! Can't you see my son has just gotten a great idea?" King Mondo yelled in his serviceman's direction.

"I apologize your excellence" Klank said as he bowed yet again towards his master.

"Yeah, quiet you!" Prince Sprocket quarreled.

"Now now my boy, what is it that you were saying?"

"Well dad…"

- - -

"ALPHA, HAVE YOU LOCATED THE SOURCE OF POWER IN HANGLE" asked Zordon in more of a statement than question.

"Ay yai yai, no Zordon" said the little robot before picking up his head in amazement, "No wait! Yes I have. It seems that the crystal on the staff is what is giving Hangle all of his power."

"EXCELLENT ALPHA. TELL THE RANGERS IMMEDIATELY," said Zordon.

"Yes Zordon, right away" said Alpha as he began pressing buttons on the consoles.

- - -

The rangers were in the Megazord now fighting off this forceful fighter. His staff would not only electrocute them but also completely make their zord unstable enough where they couldn't even make it stand on its feet.

"Guys" Zeo Red spoke up, "we have to hit Hangle, ah!" the zord was hit so incredibly hard that the Zeo Rangers went flying out of the giant zord and onto the ground near it.

The five morphed teens turned to look at their zords just completely fall and make a massive thump and rattle as it hit the floor as well.

They shielded their eyes at the impact even though they were wearing their helmets.

"Oh man, this doesn't look good," said Zeo Green as they were getting up.

Zeo Red, keeping his leader position and thinking of his team, he asked the only question he could ask at this moment, "Is everyone okay?"

The other four nodded while holding either their shoulders or abdomen in pain.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Zeo Pink, her voice breaking in pain.

"We better think of something fast" pondered Zeo Yellow as they all saw the monster heading towards their zord.

"No!" yelled Zeo Blue in his direction. "He's going towards the zord to finish it off!"

"We can't let him do that!" yelled Zeo Red as he started to go towards it.

"Wait!" yelled Zeo Pink desperately as she saw Zeo Red starting to run towards the monster; knowing for sure that he could get severely hurt.

"Tommy, I have an idea" Zeo Yellow yelled trying to get his attention.

Zeo Red instantly turned towards her and wanted to know her idea as he frantically made his way towards her.

"What is it Tanya?" asked Zeo Blue in Yellow's direction.

"What if we disable the Megazord by calling our zords and fight Hangle five on one?" she said to all as she explained her idea.

"Tanya, that's great!" said Zeo Green as the five ran up a bit.

The five teens called their zords to come to them before getting into each one, "WE NEED ZEO ZORD POWER NOW!" they said for the second time that day.

- - -

"Goldar and Rito, I will not repeat myself" said a stern Bulk as he held his pointer finger up at the their monsters.

"Yeah, he will not repeat himself" Skull repeated.

Bulk put down his finger and turned in Skull's direction and stopped himself from insulting his friend.

"What?" asked Skull pondering why his friend was looking at him so harshly.

"Never mind" said Bulk turning back towards the monster's direction before continuing his statement, "Aren't you guy's hearing the monster alarms. Everyone needs to be in safety right now."

"Yes, we hear them," said Goldar shaking his head.

"Yeah, guys, what do you think we are, deaf?" finished Rito.

"Well then, shouldn't you guys be getting to safety?" asked Skull getting irritated with the monsters by now.

"Let us just finish our game and we'll be right with you alright fellas?" said Rito slapping on the cards and getting it right this time.

Both Skull and Bulk looked at each other now and smiled at one another before looking back at Rito and Goldar.

"NOW!" they both yelled in the monsters' direction. The two got up from the benches quickly saying, "Alright, we'll be right with you" as they went right ahead to putting away their cards.

- - -

The club was full of teenagers bustling as the music played not as loudly in the background. Crowds of teens were heading towards the dance floor while others were looking around for either their friends or a place to sit.

"Hey Kat…uhh, you look great" Tommy said noticing Kat's outfit as the team all met at the 'Live Bands' concert put together by their local radio station, KAGV. His voice had to be raised for the fact that there was just so much commotion going on around them.

"Thanks" she said smiling at him, "you look great too." She couldn't help it get rather close to him to tell him so he could hear her; making her get just centimeters away from his ear.

"Thanks" he said sheepishly as he felt the warmth of her breath on his side and her soft hand being placed on his strong arm as she complimented him.

Tanya and Adam looked at one another and both sighed while raising an eyebrow at their two friends going back and forth like that.

"So," began Tanya, "why don't we grab a table?"

The other three nodded and looked around for a table to be open.

"Oh man, this place is packed" pondered Tommy as he looked around seeing that there were almost no available seats.

"Well, the floor's all taken up" Adam said pointing to the flock of people pushing and shoving to get to the front of the stage.

"Tell me about it" said Tommy as he looked at Kat and saw a vacant table with two vacant seats behind her. It was small, but it would have to do for now. "Hey, why don't we grab that one and look for another one to connect it with?"

Adam followed Tommy as the girls did too. Upon arriving at the table, Tommy motioned for Kat to sit down by gently placing his hand on her back making her blush a bit yet not showing it quite as much.

Tanya went over to sit on the seat next to her and also began looking around for another table or more chairs.

"There's one" Adam said pointing up the nearby steps causing the group to look in that direction.

"Aww man, that's too far away" Tommy said as he noticed where the table was at.

"It's alright. Look, why don't two of us go up there and two stay down here? We're gonna be listening to the music the whole time any ways, right?"

"Yeah" Tommy agreed, "I guess you're right man."

Adam then went towards Tanya and motioned for her to go up with him to the table. Tanya then winked at Kat, which smiled at her and soon after followed Adam by placing her hand in his and walking up the stairs.

Tommy went over to the table and sat on the seat that was just left by Tanya.

"Looks like it turned out to be a pretty big event" Kat told him as he sat down.

"Yeah I know. It's crazy how new bands could get such a crowd" he said liking the commotion that was going on around them which was a great excuse to get even closer to her.

"Just imagine, if it wasn't for Tanya's idea, we wouldn't be here right now."

"We'd probably be under a rock getting electrocuted at this point."

At the top, Adam and Tanya were just arriving at their table where Adam pulled out the chair for her.

"Why, thank you," said Tanya very lady-like.

"No problem" Adam told her bowing to her exaggerating his movements as he sat down next to her.

"Look at all these people. I hope they don't end the concert early because they let too many people in."

"Tell me about it…there _are_ fire codes for that sort of thing."

"Dang, they better just not come over here and ruin our fun; I'll tell you that much right now." Tanya said in a tone that Adam loved about her.

- - -

"How many times do I have to tell you? Go to sleep" said an annoyed Skull as he had to come out for now the forth time in dealing with Goldar and Rito who would refuse to stop playing games and rest.

"We already told you…" began Rito before being cut off by Goldar.

"We tried going to sleep, but we can't."

"Fine" said Skull going out of his garage, "if you won't go to sleep then I guess I'll just have to kick you guys out."

Skull went over to the door and opened it. He swung it towards the wall and stood in front of the open door. By waving his right hand towards the outside and pointing his index finger in that direction, the monsters got the hint.

"Alright alright" started Rito going over to his cot, "we'll go to sleep."

Goldar followed and laid down as well; as he was getting his eyes closed, he noticed Skull shaking his head and leaving the garage with a smile on his face.


	19. Chapter XIX

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XIX / Take it to the Head!**

The crowd began to cheer forcefully now as the third band finished with a very impressive guitar solo.

Tanya and Adam began to clap as she finished and bowed to the crowd.

"Wow, she was amazing," said Tanya in disbelief of the girl's guitar skills.

"Yeah, I didn't know a girl could play like that" Adam said with the same disbelief.

"What are you saying Adam?" questioned Tanya as she looked jokingly annoyed towards his direction.

Adam opened his eyes wide and stopped clapping knowing her look in which he thought she _wasn't_ joking.

"Well," she said, "I'm waiting."

He saw her cross her arms, yet failed to change her expression.

"Umm…" he began, "I meant that it was a great solo."

"Yeah, um hmm," she said not believing him, "what you meant is that you couldn't believe that a girl could be such a great musician with a guitar. That's what you meant."

"No I didn't," he said trying to defend himself and failing miserably. "What I meant was that I was just as surprised as you were."

Tanya at this raised an eyebrow but this time couldn't keep the straight face and started laughing hysterically at Adam's facial expression.

Adam at this gave her a questioning look thinking that she really _had_ been mad at him, yet still, just the same felt a bit relieved now knowing that she wasn't.

"I had you going" she said as she pointed in his direction.

"No you didn't" he said closing his eyes and looking away as if he was annoyed.

"Awww, are you getting mad" she continued but this time saying it with a cooing voice.

"No" he said noticing she was getting closer and closer to him and added "maybe" to see what would happen.

Yes, sure enough, Tanya hugged him around the neck and pulled him closer to him as she remained laughing at him.

"I'm sorry I made you mad" she said while inching towards him.

"It's okay; I guess now you just gotta make it up to me" he said flirtatiously which really stunned the two of them at his approach.

"Alright" she said getting even closer to him now with her arms still wrapped around his neck. As she got in kissing distance from him, she out of the blue says, "I'll make it up to you tomorrow in practice by working extra hard."

At this, Adam smiled and pulled his head back shaking it from thinking that she was going in for a kiss.

"What?" she asked him as he pulled away.

The next band was announced and started playing with an amazing rhythm.

"Nothing" he said as he turned to look at the band.

"Oh come on Adam, did you think I was going to do this…" right after saying that, she pulled him by his collar and kissed him on the lips like he had never been kissed before.

He felt her soft plump lips on his and her warm mouth letting out her tongue to meet his welcoming in into his mouth. He then wrapped his arms around her waist locking them on her back as she moved her hands towards the back of his head and started pulling on his hair a bit which made him start kissing her even more passionately.

As they broke with two open-mouthed kisses and one pop kiss, all Adam could do was smile in her direction.

"Wow" is all that came out of his mouth.

"Bet you weren't expecting _that_ one" she said as she moved closer to him and placed her head on his shoulder.

"Nope, I wasn't, but it is greatly appreciated."

"What can I say" she said looking up at the lighted ceiling of the club, "I love surprises."

"That makes two of us now" he said as he caressed the left side of her waist, "especially surprises like these."

Adam, after saying that cocked his head down to the side as it was him now that went in for the kiss. She met him half way as they enjoyed yet another crazed lip-lock.

- - -

By this point, the fifth band was just finishing up. Ten bands were set to perform. Each band got to play two songs of four minutes or less and the concert was half way through.

Kat was now sitting much closer to Tommy than they started, which she didn't mind at all. She just thought it was a bit weird since she hadn't noticed herself inching her way towards him.

As she was noticing this she caught herself looking in his direction and smiling as she saw him head bang to the song that was going on.

Tommy somewhat sensed her looking in his direction but still thought nothing of it as he turned and saw her smiling at him in which he instantly stopped head banging and smiled at her before both looking away.

Kat began to feel so incredibly embarrassed at the fact of getting caught smiling like an idiot and staring at him as she wanted to be swallowed by the earth not get spat out.

Tommy on the other hand _was_ feeling embarrassed as well, but _his_ reason was he just got caught intensifying his head bang as the girl he liked saw him. In his mind it was worst than getting caught air-guitaring in one's room, or even worst, masturbating! Was it _that _bad to go _that_ far? Yes, in his mind, it was.

They both simultaneously looked away from one another and started looking at either other people, the band, the floor, even the ceiling; but definitely _not_ back at each other.

The moment was so incredibly awkward that Kat turned her head around to see if her friend could sense her pain and be able to lip something towards her when she saw her kissing Adam for the forth time tonight; yet in Kat's perspective, her first.

Kat could not believe her eyes. Tanya had _said_ that she was going to kiss him tonight, but was she really being serious? Well, Kat knowing her so long, she knew her friend would do it. Even if she didn't do it that night, she would have done it the night after, or the night after that. One thing was for sure though, she knew that night would've not been far away.

Tommy finally got the courage to look in Kat's direction now and noticed the back of her head. He then looked in the direction that his crush was looking at and noticed Adam really going at the kissing like he never believed that boy would kiss. _Wow_, he thought to himself as he saw them, _if I wasn't such a wimp, that could be Kat and me. Then again, I 'did' ask her out, and look what happened_.

As the two turned again they found themselves accidentally staring into one another's eyes yet again. Yet this time for some apparent reason, they both quickly looked away with Tommy doing nothing but tap the table with one hand as Kat bit down on her lip.

They both looked in the direction of the stage for the entirety of the night as Tanya and Adam wouldn't even know who the sixth band was by the end of the night; nor the eighth, ninth, or tenth for _that_ matter.

- - -

Sherry was getting impatient now from waiting for Adam at the High School. She knew their friend had arrived, but he promised to practice with her to improve her soccer skills.

She took a look at her left wrist which was wrapped with a black strap showing the time.

"Ugh, that boy better get here soon" she said out to no one before throwing up the ball a bit and letting it fall on her right thigh as she bounced it back up heading it causing it to fly forward making her sprint for the ball before she got into position and started over again.

- - -

Billy had just finished the Zeo Cannon. Alpha and him had fixed the Jet Cycles together, and were happy that the new Gold Ranger had been there to help the team out for quite some time now. Billy was the man of the hour at this time as they all gathered around their usual table talking about the Gold Ranger.

"Come on Billy, but at least tell us something about him" Rocky stated as they remained talking about Billy being the Gold Ranger.

"I know it looks like that, but really guys…it's not me" Billy said taking a sip of his chocolate smoothie.

"Well, the important thing is you're there with us when we need you Billy" Kat said knowing that anytime the rangers would need him, he'd be there to lend a hand.

"Thanks" Billy stated in return.

"So Billy, tell us about this new project you're working on" Adam said changing the subject.

"Yeah, what was it again?" Tommy asked looking out blankly while wrinkling his eyebrows.

"Ummm…the defense circle?" Tanya tried a crack at it.

Billy at this chuckled seeing his friend's questioning expressions as they tried to remember the project's name.

"The Defender Wheel" he finally said after a well-deserved laugh.

A disoriented 'YEAH, THAT'S IT' came out of the group which made Billy laugh even more by shaking his head and looking down at his glass.

"So…" Rocky stated in a very tainted manner as he lifted his eyebrows up and down, "Who's gonna be the first one to use it?"

This made Billy, now along with the rest of the group laugh as well.

"You come up with every idea Billy" Kat told him.

"Well…not to honk my own horn but…" Billy began.

- - -

"Oh just look at them dear" Queen Machina said to her husband who was sitting to her right, "those ratty teenagers are happy again."

"Well, they won't be for long" King Mondo stated in a fierce tone before making it demanding and calling out his servant, "Klank!"

Klank did not answer right away as he usually does and King Mondo knew there was something up and he wanted to get to the bottom of it right away.

"Sproket!" he called out.

Yet again, there was no answer.

"Why don't you look for them dear? They shouldn't have gone far."

"I've told that boy a million times already not to leave and not tell me where he's going" King Mondo stated as he got up from his seat.

"Now dear, you know we try to teach Sprocket to destroy. He is such a wonderful boy. He's been extra bad this year."

"Yes my dear. I guess you're right. Yet, I still do not believe in teaching that young boy to leave without telling us where he is going."

- - -

"Oh, you guys, I forgot, I promised I'd meet Sherry at the soccer field for some drills" Adam stated getting up from his seat.

"I thought we were gonna play some ball later?" Tanya questioned her boyfriend about their softball game later.

"Sorry Tanya, but I kinda promised her already. I'm sure she's waiting for me at the school" Adam said before giving her a quick peck on the lips and heading out.

Kat at this smiled at her friend trying to reassure her knowing that Tanya wanted to spend some alone time with Adam.

"Well, what do you guys say we get this ball game started?" Tommy said rubbing his hands together and looking around the table.

"Fine, but I'm just gonna watch" Kat said getting up from her chair.

"But why? You _have _to play" Tanya said as she too got up from her chair.

"I don't know. I mean, I'm really bad at softball. Besides, last time we played, I almost took a foul ball to the head."

"That's because you had your ass on the bench the whole time" Rocky stated Kat's participation on their last game.

"But…"

"Nope, no buts. You're gonna play Kat" Tommy said taking her by the hand and leading her out of the Youth Center.

- - -

"Bulk" Lt. Stone repeated, "and Skull have to pass a test."

"Well technically sir, you have to teach us" Bulk corrected him.

"Fine" Lt. Stone said shaking his head.

"Look at it this way Lieutenant, we've been dying to get a great teacher" Skull said as he picked up a box of Lt. Stone's belonging's and placed it on his desk.

"Ugh" Lt. Stone groaned as he started taking his detective books out of the box.

- - -

"Come now Sprocket, I've told you once before not to be taking out the Cogs without my permission" King Mondo said as he took his young son by the hand and pulled him towards the opposite direction.

"Aww…but dad, I was just having a little fun with the rangers" Sprocket whined.

"Not another word out of you young man; and Klank, how many times have I told you to keep a sharp eye on my boy?"

"Well, you see your majesty…"

"No! Not another word out of you too. I want both of you to get back to the Machine Empire. We'll settle this later. Oh, and don't even think about us trying to destroy the rangers today Sprocket. That is going to be your punishment."

"Aww…dad, please. I'll listen to you next time, honest," Sprocket cried.

"Yes you're majesty…"

"Didn't I say not another word out of you?" Mondo snapped at yet another of his believed mediocre workers of his Machine Empire.

- - -

"Ow!" Kat snapped at her friend for throwing the ball so hard, "jeez, what did I tell you about that?"

Katherine took off the now sweaty glove and put it under her arm as she massaged her left hand with her right.

"Hey princess, stop stalling the game and throw it over here!" Rocky yelled from third base at Kat whom was in first.

"Here!" she yelled back throwing the ball in his direction only to have it get about five feet away from him and start rolling in his direction still.

"Thank you" Rocky said sarcastically as he threw the ball at Tommy whom was in third base and successfully caught it.

"Alright, here you go Tanya!" Tommy yelled as he threw the ball over to the mound.

Upon catching it, Tanya got in pitcher position and then lifted her left leg up towards her right while pulling her right arm back. She then swung her arm forward while allowing her left hand to be used as support for her strength letting it fall towards her back.

"Show off" Rocky yelled at her as she refused yet again to throw the softball underhand.

Billy, standing behind home base crouched down, caught the ball and didn't notice that Kat wasn't ready to receive the ball yet when throwing it to first base.

Katherine had still not successfully put on her glove yet and as she looked up, she saw a flying ball heading right towards her direction in fast speed now only inches away from her face.


	20. Chapter XX

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XX / Adam's Love Connection**

"Alright, now jump as high as you can twice bringing your heels up under your butt twice in one second" Adam said as he kept coaching Sherry in the High School soccer field.

"Okay" Sherry said before shaking off the tension and starting to jump as Adam looked at his chronometer.

"Go…good…keep it going" he said as he counted two straight minutes and told her to stop.

Sherry stretched down and then up trying to catch her breath, which she did very easily.

Adam, having seen her still have something left inside of her, started to give her another drill to do to build up skills.

"Now jump over the cone from side to side to build up speed plus stamina" Adam said while pointing at the nearest cone as he again put the clock up chest high.

"Okay, hold on" Sherry said as she made her way towards the nearby cone and got on one side of it. She began jumping from side to side and started off by thinking that it was pretty easy. Soon she noticed that only a minute had passed and she was very tired.

"Alright, I'll tell you when" Adam said as he noticed Sherry's jumps getting lower and slower.

"Okay" she said quickly between two very close and heavy breaths.

"I want you to jump higher…and faster," he soon added.

"Right" she said as she did what she was told.

- - -

"Kat, are you alright?"

Kat could hear Tommy's voice but didn't know why it sounded so distant.

"Kat, can you hear me?"

Now it was a bit clearer, yet still a bit far. She didn't know why her body did not react right away. She could see nothing but darkness surrounding her, but felt her eyes were open. _Oh my God! Am I dead?_ She thought.

At that, a small dot of light made itself through her sight and got bigger by the second.

"Kat"

"Kat"

Now the voice became very clear as light shone through her eyes making her squint and try to shield her eyes from the hot sun. As she removed her hand, four familiar faces appeared hovering above her making a circle around the air.

"Oh Kat thank God, how are you feeling?"

"Huh?" was everything she could say at that instant as she laid on the floor.

"At least she woke up" Rocky said looking at the bright side.

"Kat, I'm really sorry," Billy said with a soft concerned tone.

"What happened" Kat said dazedly as she was still trying hard to regain realization of what was around her.

"You really took it to the head this time" Rocky said making his sense of humor come at a very bad time.

Rocky sensed it too as he saw Tommy glare at him firmly as he held Kat's head steady.

"What?" Rocky asked raising his shoulders and arms as if he didn't know.

Tommy didn't say a word to him but with the same look given, shook his head which made Rocky shut up entirely.

"I think we should get 'er to a hospital" suggested Tanya.

"No, I'm fine" Kat said as she felt her pain on the left side of her temple get even worse as she touched it lightly making her flinch.

"Oh man, I don't know what we should do," Tommy said before looking in Billy's direction.

Billy at this just shrugged his shoulders. "It's up to her really. Only she knows what needs to be done."

"I'm fine" Kat said as she was preparing to get up before getting dizzy again and grabbing on to Tommy's leg for support as he again started to get the back of her head.

"Whoa, easy now" he said as he pulled her in close to his chest letting her rest for a bit longer as he sat on the dirt and let her place her weight on him.

"I think we should get her parents" Rocky said getting serious now.

The group nodded as Rocky drove Tanya to the Hillard home and Billy stayed to help Tommy out.

- - -

Kat laid back on Tommy's chest as they both saw Billy walking towards the truck to look for bandages in the glove compartment.

Tommy looked down at Kat and smiled at her, "I'm sure glad you have a hard head on your shoulders" he said making Katherine look up at him.

She smiled and laughed a little before wincing in pain, "ow" she said again while touching the now bruise on her head.

Tommy, while having his left arm over her left shoulder, took his right hand and placed it on her bruise while gently going over the injured area with his thumb. "It's getting bruised up."

"Well, is it swollen?" she asked not knowing what it looked like at this point.

"Umm, a little. Not too much though" he said trying to assure her that it wasn't so bad.

"I can't believe what happened" Kat said as she looked up at the sky.

"Don't worry about it. You're gonna be fine" Tommy said hiding the laughter he felt coming up to his throat.

"Ugh" Kat grunted as she remembered the events that happened. All of a sudden while the embarrassment and pain were still in her, she somewhat started to chuckle under her breath a bit.

Tommy hearing this looked down at Kat at which she looked up at him and in a split instant, they both gave each other a smile and started laughing hysterically.

Katherine couldn't help but pull on Tommy's shirt and hide her face on his chest as he pulled her in a tight embrace, as he too could not stop laughing.

- - -

"Alright, looking good" Adam told Sherry as he let her take a five minute break before he gave her more instructions.

Adam saw Sherry sit at the bleachers with a bottle of water and decided to do a kata or two to practice for the upcoming tournament.

He started off by walking a few feet away and turning his back towards Sherry. He then lifted both his hands while closing his eyes to focus on the atmosphere around him as he adducted his hands towards his chest before beginning his routine.

Sherry watched with awe as Adam performed a very soothing kata. She took a sip of water, rinsed her mouth, and spit it out without losing a trace of what he was doing. She then stood up and tried to follow his moves as best she could.

As he finished, he turned to see Sherry finishing as well and blushed at this.

"I didn't know you did kung fu" Adam said going over to the bleachers and getting a water bottle.

"I don't. I actually don't know the first thing about it, but I like it" Sherry said mimicking a move that she knew she had down perfectly as she learned from following Adam.

"Here" he said noticing that Sherry was doing the stance wrong.

He got behind her and raised her leg to the appropriate position in which both blushed at feeling his hands on her.

Sherry put her leg down and looked at the floor then at the bleachers as Adam looked away as well.

"Like this?" Sherry said trying to ignore the awkwardness.

"Yeah, there you go. But try to keep your back straight" said Adam not wanting to go near her anymore for fear of what might happen.

Sherry continued doing the same short move three times until she got it down perfectly.

"Hey, that's awesome. It didn't take you so long to learn that one" Adam noticed.

"Thanks, Rocky's always too busy stuffing his face to teach me" she said getting in stance once more.

"Well, if you'd like, I could teach you a couple of moves" Adam said walking towards her.

- - -

"Hey, how you doin' girl?" Tanya asked Kat as she and her mom came into the clinic's waiting room.

"Alright, I guess" Kat said with a faint smile as she touched the bandaged area with her fingertips and saw her mom go up to the front desk.

Tommy and Rocky walked up to her leaving the magazines they were reading on the nearby table not noticing that Billy had remained seated.

"So, what happened?" Tommy asked.

"The doctor said that I have to get an MRI to see if everything's fine. Other than that, just to put ice to make the swelling go down."

"That sucks" Rocky said as he placed his hands on each side.

"Hey" Tanya said noticing Billy off in the distance, "Why you so quiet, huh?"

"Huh?" Billy asked while looking up at his team.

They all laughed at Billy's unresponsiveness as Kat's mom spoke, "sweetie, I better drive you home right now. I don't want you doing anything else today" she said with a thicker accent than her daughter's.

"Alright mom" she said as she looked at Tanya, "coming home too?"

"Yeah, _somebody's_ gotta take care of you right?"

"What about your date with Adam?"

Tommy at this broke in and said, "Well, I could take care of you" which came out sounding a little more shy than anticipated.

Katherine at this smiled as Tanya raised her eyebrows giving Rocky a look, which she got in return.

"Sure" Kat said not noticing her friends' expressions along with Tommy.

June saw the look between the two teens and smiled as she shook her head, "let's get going dear" she said taking the appointment slip from the receptionist.

"Coming?" Kat asked Tommy as she stepped towards the exit's direction.

"Yeah" he simply said as he didn't take his eyes off of her and nodded his head. "Let me take you" he added as the three made their way out the door.

"Okay" Kat said walking down the few steps.

"Drive safely" June told them listening to their conversation as she made her way to her car.

"Yes Mrs. Hillard" Tommy said as gentleman like as he could.

Kat smiled at him as he opened the truck door for her as usual.

Back in the clinic, Tanya and Rocky had yet to notice Billy still sitting there.

"Can you believe that? Just leaving us here like this after we were so worried. It's like they didn't even notice us," Rocky asked placing his hands now crossed in front of his chest.

"Tell me about it. I bet you those two wouldn't even notice an earthquake happening when they're giving each other that look" Tanya said.

"Which look? This one?" Rocky said before making a confused look on his face then turning it into a staring one with his mouth open.

"Yeah!" Tanya said at the ever so off expression as she pointed to his face and started to laugh not caring about the people in the waiting room nor their annoyed looks, "that one." They kept laughing for several more seconds before Tanya, still laughing said, "Come on Billy, let's go somewhere."

Billy looked up and noticed his friends were still laughing yet didn't have the slightest idea why. He got up and followed them outside to Kat's car not caring where they were going at this point.

- - -

"Umm…I better get going. I have a date with Tanya tonight; I don't wanna be late" Adam said picking up his soccer gear and putting it in his gym bag.

"Oh, alright. Same time tomorrow?" Sherry asked as she went over next to him and started helping.

"Sure" Adam said with a smile completely forgetting about Tanya's lesson the next day.

"Cool" Sherry said as she picked up her red and white bag.

"So what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing much. Just hanging out with Rocky…again" she said in a tired tone.

Adam smiled, "I'm glad I'm not at that mood point yet."

"How so?"

"Well" he said as he picked up his bag and started walking with her towards the Youth Center, "Tanya and I just started dating."

"Ah, I get it, you're not bored of her yet" she said jokingly.

Adam laughed and looked in her direction, "No" he said shaking his head.

"You know, seriously though, I sometimes wish he'd change it up a little or something."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I just feel we've been having problems lately."

"Oh yeah? What kind of problems?"

"You know, like, going out problems. I wanna do something together like go out and have fun. All _he_ wants to do is go out with _you_ guys."

"Oh"

"Not that I don't like hanging out with you guys, it's just that, well, sometimes I feel like we need a little time alone to have fun by ourselves, that's all."

"Well, weren't you guys together on Friday?"

"Yeah, but all we did was the same thing we do every time we're alone."

"What's that?" Adam said a little off as afraid to even ask the question.

"No…not _that_" she said making both of them laugh. "We just watch a movie at his house. It gets dark and he takes me home."

"And…you're tired of that…"

"Yeah"

"Well, I suggest you talk to him about it."

"That's where the problem comes in. I tell him that and he says, 'you don't wanna spend time with my friends or what?' Then we just end up getting in this whole argument about one silly little thing."

"It doesn't really sound like a silly little thing to me. I mean, I know that _I_ wouldn't like spending time with my girlfriend just watching movies."

"Exactly"

"Would you mind if I talked to him?"

"Umm…"

"Don't worry. I'll bring it up like in a conversational topic. You won't be mentioned at all."

"Oh, alright then. Thanks Adam."

"You're welcome," he said as they both made their way past the park.


	21. Chapter XXI

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine.

**Budding**

**Chapter XXI / Billy's Feelings**

"What movie's this?" Kat asked looking down at the movie cover as Tommy went over to the VCR and put it in.

"You've never seen it?"

"No"

"It's Scarface. The best movie ever made."

"I can't believe you carry around this movie in your truck."

"I don't" he stated going back to the couch and sitting next to her, "I picked it up from Rocky's house yesterday and forgot to take it out."

"Oh"

"You'll like it."

"What's it about?"

"Just mobsters and deals."

"Oh, this just has Z's written all over it."

"Come one Kat, I bet you that you won't fall asleep with _this_ movie."

"It just seems like a guy movie."

"It _is_ a guy movie; and you're watching it with a guy."

"Oh then" she started saying sarcastically, "that makes it all better."

Tommy at this pretended to get up and said, "Fine, if you don't want to watch it with me then…"

At that, Kat pulled him back, "No, no. I was kidding."

Tommy had an exaggerated hurt look on his face, which earned him a fake punch from Kat making him smile at her.

They both sat there quietly waiting for the last preview to show for the movie to begin.

- - -

"What's wrong Billy? You've been quiet ever since we were in the clinic." Tanya asked his friend as she, he, and Rocky were sitting on the Juice Bar stools.

"Nothing really. I'm just worried about Kat."

"What do you mean, man? She said she was fine" Rocky said.

"I know, but I just can't help it feel that if something comes out wrong in the MRI, I'd never forgive myself. It's really serious you guys. You don't know how bad a blow to the head it. It's very dangerous, especially with something as hard as a softball."

"Don't worry about it Billy. She'll be okay" Tanya told him as she caressed his back.

- - -

"Okay, now why did he say _that_?" Kat asked another question.

"Because she didn't wanna have anything to do with him so Tony called her a lesbian."

"Oh, so that automatically makes her a lesbian. Just because she's not interested in him," she said disgusted.

"No" Tommy said laughing, "It's just supposed to be funny. He's looking out for his boy and doesn't want him to feel bad."

"I guess," she said shrugging not changing her tone. "I don't get it, if he loves his sister so much, why does he keep beating the crap out of her?"

"Must I explain everything?"

"You claim you've seen this movie enough times to know what's going on."

"I think you hit your head too hard, it's not letting you think straight."

Kat at this gasped and hit him with a pillow in which he put his hands up to for defense and laughed.

"I'm just playing!" he said in-between laughter.

"You're just mad cuz I'm not into your little movie."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll go get The Little Mermaid" Tommy said softly which caused him another hit with the pillow.

The both then heard the door open and saw whom it was making them, especially Tommy, stop their laughter.

"What have I told you about horse playing in the house Katherine?" her father told her sternly.

"We were only playing around dad" Kat told him as she got up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Playing around or not," he said as he saw Tommy going towards him for a handshake, "these couches aren't cheap."

"We understand sir; and I apologize for that. I guess we weren't thinking" Tommy said, trying his hardest to get on his good side.

As he stopped speaking, the movie they were watching said profanity after profanity in which Kat and Tommy looked at each other wide eyed instantly. Tommy didn't know what do at that point but let his body temperature rise as he felt his face getting redder by the second.

Kat ran to the VCR and pushed the stop button and noticed as she turned around her father's eyebrow rise. Bruce took in a deep breath and looked at Tommy.

"Who's movie is that?" he asked him.

"It's Rocky's dad. He left here the other day and I asked Tommy if he wanted to watch it" Kat answered immediately.

Tommy stayed quiet as he heard Mr. Hillard speak.

"I was talking to Thomas, Katherine. Learn to keep the etiquette we taught you."

Kat looked down and now it was _her_ whom turned red. She hated when her father took this tone with her, especially in front of other people. It wasn't often that he'd talk to her like that, but she knew that it was Tommy whom he didn't like.

She didn't know why though. He always spoke highly of Tommy…until he started seeing the sparkle in his daughter's eye when she talked about him. She knew too well that to her father, she was still his five year old girl wanting to sit on his lap; yet was confused at the fact that just because she liked Tommy, her dad seemed to make him less of what he really was; a dependable, strong, and responsible guy.

"Fine" she said coldly which came out colder than she wanted it to.

Tommy turned to her then turned back to her dad.

"I'll be in the kitchen," he said as he turned and walked away.

"Well, at least he didn't motion for me to leave this time" Tommy said trying to make her laugh as he went over to her and rubbed her arms knowing that she was furious at this point.

She simply shook her head as she ran everything that happened again in her mind.

"Don't worry about it Kat. He's just stressed out from work, that's all."

Kat looked down and then back up at Tommy. "Yeah, you're right."

- - -

It's been several days since the softball incident and Katherine _still _feels Billy a bit distant from her. The rangers are all in the Power Chamber awaiting the arrival of Tommy with this so-called new Gold Ranger possessor.

Each of them are pacing around the Power Chamber not knowing who Tommy has thought of to receive Trey's power. Katherine is pacing around wondering who it might be, but stops to look around. She sees Tanya talking to Adam and turns to the right side of the Power Chamber and sees Rocky explaining to Trey why he should give up his thrown to him for protection. She shakes her head at Rocky's insane comments coming out of his mouth, then notices Billy's not there.

She looks around and sees for sure that he is no where in the main area. She decides to head to the back where she knows he's working.

She walked through the dark hallways of the Power Chamber thinking of why Billy had been acting so different with her lately.

"Billy" she said once she saw him.

He turned around and saw her face. He stared into her eyes for a split second and turned quickly around again.

"Billy, am I interrupting?" she asked hurt from what he just did.

"No, of course not" he said not looking up.

"Ummm…Billy" she saw that he didn't turn to look at her and decided to go up to him instead. She grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around, "Billy, I really need to talk to you. Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you" he said before turning and getting back to work again.

Katherine looked down not knowing what to say at this point. She knew something was wrong, but didn't know how to get to the bottom of it. She decided to take a step to the side and sit on the chair next to him.

She sat there for a while until Billy started to get uncomfortable of feeling her stare at what he was doing.

"Okay, look, I really can't work with you here right now" he said putting down his tools he had on his hands.

"Then I guess you won't work, which means that you're going to have to talk to me" she said making him blush at never being talked like that by her before.

"Fine" he said dryly getting up and walking away from her. He walked across the room and sat down on a couch, "So talk," he said crossing his arms.

" I'm not the one that should be doing the talking Billy, you are."

"Why me?"

"Because…you've been acting really different lately. I mean, it was okay in the beginning, but now it's just getting to be a real pain in the butt."

"Look Kat" he said moving his body forward now, "I don't have anything. Nothing is wrong. I've just been under a little pressure with trying to get these things done that's all."

"Why have you been taking it out on me? You don't act like that around the others, just around me."

"Like what?"

"Like being mad or depressed. You don't even turn to look at me sometimes."

"I can't look at you Kat."

"Why not?"

"Because…" he said before pausing. He took a deep breath and looked away, "Just forget it."

"Billy" she started saying as she too got up and walked over to the couch to sit by him. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "You can tell me anything. I know we hardly know each other, but…I also know that we can count on one another as well. Especially if it's making one of us feel bad."

"I don't feel bad," he said looking at her now.

"I don't mean you," she said softly.

"Kat, I'm sorry. I had no idea this was affecting you."

"It is," she said almost having it come out a whisper.

"Kat…" he began while taking both of her hands and placing them in his. "I really care about you. I just want you to know that…ever since the softball game, I haven't been able to look at you anymore."

"Why's that?"

"Because Kat…because…because….because" he kept repeating not being able to come out with another word.

"Because what?" she asked getting frustrated at this point yet not losing her stare she had with him.

"Because…I care too much about you. I could've hurt you Kat, _really_ bad."

"Is _this_ what all of this silence is about. Just because you hit me with the softball?"

"You were unstable for several minutes Kat."

"Seconds" she corrected him.

"Fine, seconds. It was just so scary…" he ranted on.

"Billy, it's not _that_ bad."

"…I can't believe that I hurt you like that. I wouldn't have heard the end of it from Tommy, you could've never of woken up. I don't know what I would've done if…"

"Wait…"

"What?"

"Why wouldn't you have heard the end of it from Tommy?"

"Huh? Oh, umm…I meant Tanya."

"But you said Tommy."

"Yeah, well, I meant Tanya."

"Why did you say Tommy? Did he tell you anything about me?" she said with hope in her eyes.

"Ummm…tell me something? No, but I'm sure he was worried about you too."

"Oh…" she said putting her head down in disappointment in not being convinced with that answer.

"So" he said picking up her head with his hand, "Are we alright?"

"I don't know…you tell me?" she asked him cockily.

Billy smiled at her and pulled her into a hug, "yeah" he said, "we're alright."

- - -

Through the viewing globe the rangers see Tommy and a mysterious guy in a white bandana and sunglasses getting shot at by the Quadrafighters.

Tanya is holding on to Adam as she digs her nails into his arms. He's too stunned looking at the viewing globe to notice this, as he is grabbing on to the consoles.

"Oh man" Rocky says under his breath just praying inside himself that they'll be okay.

Katherine is taking in long deep breaths trying to keep her breathing intact because part of her was wanting to teleport out of there and help them.

Billy kept his eye on the viewing globe like the others as his eyesight went from the globe to the readings he was getting of their distance.

Zordon and Alpha were worried as well, having that they already knew in their hearts, who Tommy was bringing home.

The team, along with Trey kept their fingers crossed mentally as Billy stated that he could teleport them into the Power Chamber making everyone sigh in relief. He finally was able to teleport them in and everyone saw Tommy walk in to the main room fresh as a lettuce.

"I'm fine" he said, "The new Gold Ranger is right here." He pointed with his thumb toward his back and in walked the guy.

He removed his sunglasses to have the team see the original Red Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger, Jason Lee Scott.

- - -

**A/N: **Whew! I'm finally back on track where I _should_ be. I hope I can make the chapters go a lot faster…


	22. Chapter XXII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I'll be taking the idea of Meloda2626's 'JASON'S THOUGHTS' with permission._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXII / Jason's Back!**

"I can't say how great it is to have you back home" Tommy told his best friend as they were both sitting at the kitchen table in Tommy's house.

"Thanks man, that means a lot to me" Jason responded with a sparkle in his eye of happiness yet a part of him wanted everything to be the same as when he left.

"We know that you're feeling a bit distant at the moment having to come back to a completely different Angel Grove than what you left behind" Billy told Jason as he walked into the kitchen and placed his hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Yeah, I just…I miss Trini and Kim and Zack" Jason told them both as he looked out into space. "When I came back I at least thought I was going to see Aisha and Kim here." Jason shook his head and looked down at his hands. Something inside him always told him that Tommy's conversations about having new rangers was real, but part of him wanted to see it to believe it. He closed his eyes as he thought back to his old ranger days and knew he had back up anytime he needed it. Truthfully, he didn't know if he could even trust these two new girls that had joined the team. "I don't know if I could do this man," he said picking up his head looking at the ceiling fan as the paddles went around in circles rapidly.

Both Billy and Tommy looked at one another. Billy raised his eyebrows as Tommy simultaneously frowned as they both changed their facial expressions.

"Hey" Tommy sat up looking at the glass half full now and trying to pick Jason's spirits up, "Look at it this way man…with you part of the team now, we'll get rid of whatever Mondo throws at us a lot sooner. It'll give you a lot more time for the ladies." Tommy hit him on his forearm making Jason smile and chuckle a bit.

"Yeah" he confessed, "rangering _does_ take away from the ladies, I have to admit."

Billy went over and sat next to Jason as the three continued to talk.

- - -

"I _still_ can't believe Jason is part of the team," Tanya said as she opened her notebook.

She and Kat were now in the Resource Center studying for a quiz that they knew they were going to have that upcoming Friday. Having their conversation not so far off from the boys, the continued to speak.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I went to sleep last night just thinking my communicator was going to go off at any minute now that Mondo knows that we have full ownership of the Gold Ranger Powers now."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing" Tanya told her as she picked up her pen and waved it around randomly as she talked, "I'm just glad I'm gonna finally get a little alone time with Adam."

"So, how have you two been doing since then?" Kat asked her friend about the day that Adam had coached Sherry for her soccer practice alone.

Tanya rolled her eyes, "He's coaching her right now…"

Katherine opened her binder and clicked it open before getting written sheets of paper and placing them in front of her as she placed the binder on the empty chair next to hers.

"…and you know what the worst part of it is?"

"What?"

"He just tells me, 'Tanya, I'm gonna go over to the field and practice with Sherry', as soon as he told me that girl…I swear, I thought my head was going to explode."

Kat looked down at her notes not knowing what to say to her friend. She knew she'd be mad if it was she in the same situation, but she really didn't want her best friend feeling like this. "Why don't you just plan something for both of you some day? Ask him if he feels like he's spending a little too much time with Rocky's girlfriend."

"Or" Tanya retorted, "I could just go ahead and talk to Rocky about this."

Katherine's head immediately lifted up from her overlooking her notes and looked at her friend wide-eyed. "That is the _worst_ thing you could do!"

Everyone around sitting at the Resource Center looked in their direction and shushed her. She looked around and planned to give out dirty looks, but in the end, she just turned back to her friend and lowered her voice.

"Tanya, Rocky is really jealous. You know that. If he even suspected something was wrong, he'd flip."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

They decided to drop the subject at hand and begin to study with one another.

- - -

Jason stretched out his body as he laid his back flat under his thin sheets with his hands behind his head. He looked up at his white ceiling and saw the ceiling fan rotating above him. The paddles made him remember Tommy's kitchen and the talk the three had earlier. He'd be starting school tomorrow and didn't know what to think. Deborah was someone he often thought about. Tommy told him about her and how she had tried to hit on him at the bowling alley. Deborah had hit on him as well, but he didn't play hard to get at all. They dated for a couple of days until she started wanting more of an emotional commitment from his part.

Jason was not one to be jumping from girl to girl, but he knew that he didn't see himself growing old with any of the girls he dated. He began to wonder why Tommy had let her down. If it were for her aggressiveness or he really _did_ like this Katherine girl he told him so much about. He remembered his first reaction upon seeing everyone at the power chamber once he took off his sunglasses.

Looking over at Tanya he was a bit saddened at her wearing yellow having that be the first sign of Aisha not being there. He looked over at Rocky. He had cut his hair shorter yet Jason still knew he was the class clown somehow. Adam was wearing a smirk on his face letting him know that he was still this mysterious guy that no one could crack…yet. Something caught his eye next. He didn't know if it was the color of her blouse, or the color of her skin that made the pink hue look good under the light. Her hair was a bit messy and damp, but the smile on her face cleared that all up. As he went over to shake everyone's hand one by one, he remained smiling as he got to her. Noting in his head his arrival towards her, he softly shook her hand and he looked her over with the corners of his eyes. _Wow_, he thought. It was the only thought that came across his mind as he shook her hand and realized that he had been holding it longer than the others had. He let go and stepped to the side to shake Tanya's.

He couldn't get her out of his head. The first sight that came into him was her charismatic smile piercing through his soul as he looked her way. He automatically thought at that instant that this was a girl he just _had_ to ask out. It was odd, but for a quick instant, he saw nothing in the Power Chamber but her, and her alone.

After his conversation with Tommy and Billy, he knew there was no way he would ever ask her out now. Tommy had told him about the new pink ranger but he refused to talk about his feeling for her with him for fear of getting too drawn to her. Once he knew it was inevitable that it was too late for fear of that now, he came clean at the kitchen table.

More came out on that table than the three friends had ever confessed to one another; for instance, Billy's girlfriend. Jason couldn't believe that Billy would fall for a creature from another planet. In Jason's eyes, once she was described to him, she looked like a creature with black beefy eyes and no human form at all, though noting that Billy had told him about her body. Yet, he somehow still couldn't believe that Billy, whom had such a tremendous crush on Trini, would turn from the 'Asian Persuasion' to 'Planet of the Apes' without even a call to him.

Jason let that run through his mind as he felt his eyes get heavy. He didn't try to fight it, and closed them to wake up to a sunny morning.

- - -

First through third period had gone rather well for Jason. He saw teachers he hadn't seen in a long time. His football coach was happy to see him there again. The memories just came soaring through him as he walked down the halls to get to his locker.

"So, liking it so far?" Tommy asked him as he approached his own locker having it be three lockers down from Jason's.

"Yeah. It's a little different, but, you know…it's not that bad."

"We usually all meet at Rocky's locker before lunch then head over to Ernie's" Tommy explained making Jason turn around and walk with him away from the cafeteria.

"You mean…it's not a closed campus anymore?"

"Yup…we eat at Ernie's everyday. He has the student special, only two nineteen. It's cool too, he changes the plate everyday, so you won't get tired of eating the same old thing every week."

"So, who's going exactly?"

They made their way down the hallway bustling with teenagers as they headed to Rocky's locker.

"Just Adam, Tanya, and Rocky. Billy usually meets us there."

"And Katherine?"

"She eats with the ballet dancers. They have a meeting everyday. Except for Wednesdays. Then she eats with us. Oh, and Sherry has Lunch B cuz she's a sophomore."

"Okay, since when can't the sophomores eat with the juniors?"

"They divided the lunches. Juniors and seniors have Lunch A and freshmen and sophomores have Lunch B, they come out to lunch when we're coming in."

"Things _sure_ have changed since I was here last" Jason pondered as they arrived at Rocky's locker.

- - -

After school, Jason felt a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders when Tommy asked him if he'd like to go to the Youth Center and spar. There were things he really felt were bottling up inside him and he knew sparring wouldn't only bring back old memories, but it would relieve his tension enormously.

Being back in Angel Grove was really taking a lot out of him. Not only did he have to deal with these two new girls that he had to get to know better, but he had to catch up on the school work that he missed in the past three months of the semester.

"So, ready man?" Tommy told him breaking his thoughts and going over to the mat.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

The two had talked before about leadership. He didn't want Tommy feeling as if he wanted to take his place, but having the Gold Ranger Power…he had to admit…non of them were holding such a powerful staff nor owned such a powerful Zord such as Pyramidas as he knew he would one day control.

All kinds of feelings were reeling around in his head, yet no feeling could overcome the most powerful on of them all: pride. He was so enthusiastic about being a ranger again, it hit him a while later. The pride that came with the title of being able to defend behind a helmet that would help save the world. Being a Power Rangers was by far one of the most important tasks he has ever had to face. He knew the great responsibility it took to be able to leave aside what one was doing and go to fend for the world. He was ready and willing to risk it all once more for the adrenaline rush of knowing that the world's futures were held in their hands.

- - -

After their sparring match, Jason and Tommy went to take a shower in the locker rooms but failed to notice the person walking into the Youth Center and heading towards their friends who had taken seats around the table after watching the match.

"Hey" Deborah told them as she steeped forward with a chair of her own and placed it between Katherine and Tanya.

"Hey" came a toneless greeting from the group. They had all gotten a bad vibe from her at the bowling alley, yet neither of them had talked to the other one about their feelings. Somehow, they just knew what one another was thinking.

They talked a short while before the two guys came out of the locker room and saw Deborah sitting with the group along with Sherry who was getting up from her chair and waving goodbye to them as she headed out of the Youth Center.

"Hi Deborah" Jason told her as he waited for her to turn, smile, and get up to hug him. He still didn't want to believe she had hit on Tommy. Part of him was telling himself that he was denying it to himself, yet another part of him said that she's just looking for another fling…and he definitely didn't want Tommy, his best friend, to get hurt.

"I haven't seen you all day," she said hypocritically as she had seen him four times in the past hour.

"Yeah, I just got back," he said going over and sitting next to Tommy which was at her adjacent side.

"So, Jason, when are you going to get out of your little mood? Soon I hope" she said looking at the others trying to make them laugh but in return only getting a number of confused stares heading her way. "Listen" she began as she started to get up, "I gotta go, but, be sure to call me."

No one knew exactly to whom she was talking to, but they all felt that as soon as she left the table, the air got a lot clearer and better to talk in. They all looked at one another not knowing what to say to each other until Tanya broke the silence.

"So Jason, Tommy told us you were a great football player. What position did you play?"

"I was a line-backer" he told them before looking at Tommy questionably, "he said I was a great football player?"

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"Hmm, the last I knew, the quarterback was the one getting hit on by all the ladies."

Everyone was surprised at this. Tommy had not told them that he had made the football team for some reason.

"You were a quarterback?" Rocky asked in disbelief seeing how bad Tommy was at playing flag football yet not noticing that he never once threw the ball.

"Oh yeah" Jason continued on with his story making the others look at Jason then look back at Tommy.

"Hey, what about that time you almost had me on the mat" Tommy reminisced.

"I lost count at thirty-nine" Jason told him sarcastically.

Everyone at this started laughing at the two bickering back and forth at an argument that lead to many other stories including how Katherine and Tanya joined the team. By half of the conversation, Jason felt as if he knew the two girls since infancy, which would make it really easy for him to trust them in the days to come.


	23. Chapter XXIII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I will be borrowing dialogue from the episode: 'King Mondo's Last Stand'._

**Budding Chapter XXIII / Breaking up is hard to do**

"I just don't wanna talk about it okay?" Tanya snapped at Adam as the two entered the Juice Bar after school.

Tommy, Jason, and Kat were waiting for Billy. They had all decided to go out to a movie after they realized they were the only ones in the group that weren't dating. After their usual after school lunch at the Youth Center, they sat at the opposite side of the table, facing the exit, waiting for their friend to show up.

"You brought this up Tanya, now finish telling me" Adam demanded in a fierce tone that none of his friends knew he had.

"Just forget it I said" Tanya said as she sat down at the group's table making everyone there uncomfortable to be sitting at the same one. Jason and Tommy both started looking anywhere but in their direction. Katherine at this found her hands to be more interesting than ever.

"Why don't you just say it already?" Adam protested neither noticing where they were sitting nor anything else that was going on around them.

"Fine!" Tanya said angrily, "I'm tired of all the time you're spending with Sherry! I know you guys got home late last night!"

"We were training hard yesterday. The game isn't that far away and it's the most important game in the season Tanya, she needs to be ready." Adam looked down not noticing the pair coming toward them from the sparring mats.

A voice came from behind the bars separating the room a bit. "You were with Adam last night?" Rocky asked Sherry who was standing beside him looking deeply in thought.

"We were practicing."

"You told me you were at your grandma's" Rocky told her as he felt his face grow hot.

Sherry at this looked down and then leveled her sight toward everyone else. She looked at the group sitting at the table as if with her eyes asking for their help, though they were all showing the same look her way. They were _Rocky's _friends, not hers.

Tanya at this shook her head, as she was still mad. Adam looked in her direction and squeezed her hand as she pulled it towards her away from him. Katherine took a deep breath before standing up. As she did so, Jason followed, along with Tommy.

"I'm sorry" Sherry apologized for her lying. "I know that if you had known that I was with Adam, you would've gotten mad at me."

"What does that tell you?" Rocky asked the obvious.

"I'm really sorry" Sherry whispered his way with tears forming in her eyes.

"Yeah" Rocky told her as he started to walk away, "I'm really sorry too. Sorry that you came into my life and made me waste five months of it that I'll never get back."

Sherry closed her eyes as she felt the warm liquid run down her cheeks and get cold as it dropped down to her chin.

"I'd never do anything to hurt you Tanya" Adam told her looking her way to find her getting up from her seat.

"I'm going home" she told him coldly in a tone that told him not to follow her; a tone in which he ignored.

- - -

Jason, Kat, Billy, and Tommy had decided to go to the park and stay there for the afternoon. The three informed Billy of the day's events to catch him up to speed about what was going on. He knew something like this always happened between any couple, yet, what he didn't know was how it would affect the team's performance against King Mondo's Empire. He made a mental note to talk to Tanya and Adam privately about this situation. Ranger duties would always be placed before anything in their personal affairs.

- - -

The next two days were dry. Rocky didn't spend as much time with the team as he used to. They hadn't battled any monsters, which seemed odd to them. Still, Rocky felt as if he had his heart ripped out of his chest. He knew he should have given Sherry a chance to explain herself more thoroughly, but his jealousy had always gotten in the way of a true relationship. He decided to go to the Youth Center where he knew his friends would be and try to act like himself again to get his mind off of Sherry.

"Hey Tommy" Rocky said running up to Tommy who was ready to spar, "You up for a little…sparring?" he told him punching the air playfully.

"Ahh…I would, but I already promised Jason" Tommy replied before shrugging, "Sorry dude."

"It's alright, don't worry about it man" Rocky said shrugging it off easily.

Adam, after sparring with Jason, went over to the girls who were also standing around watching the match. He saw Tanya next to Kat yet saw her look in his direction and quickly looked away giving him the sign that she was still mad at him.

Tommy and Jason started to spar as Bulk and Skull walked up behind Rocky. Skull at this made a mental note at Rocky's somewhat disappointed expression on his face.

"Hey, Jason and Tommy are fighting!" Skull said with enthusiasm in his voice.

"They're not fighting numbskull, they're sparring" Bulk retorted in his usual corrective manner.

"Ehhh, sparring" Skull said with reminiscence in his voice, "kind of takes you back doesn't it?" He looked over at Rocky who seemed saddened for some reason and wanted to add to his misery. "Looks like you're being replaced, don't it…buddy" Skull asked in Rocky's direction making him rub his fist in frustration.

Rocky turned to Skull and pointed at him wanting to tell him something but drew back knowing that he had enough problems to deal with at this point. He not only had to deal with not talking to his best friend, he had just broken up with his girlfriend as well making him glad the school year was drawing near. He went over to the nearby bench and sat down. "Replaced?" he asked himself inaudibly enough for the rest to hear.

- - -

Much later that day, Rocky felt a huge weight lifted off his chest. He had begun to think that Jason was trying to replace him. After King Mondo had successfully gotten The Damocles Sword. He tried to defeat Mondo himself yet failed to do so before leaving to the Power Chamber and having to witness Mondo destroy part of the city.

The rangers came together as a team to defeat Mondo with the use of the Super Zeo Megazord, a gift from Trey of Triphoria after he gave Jason the Gold Ranger power. They then realized that Mondo was destroyed and fell apart from the harsh fall that he took after his defeat.

The rangers again gathered round in the Youth Center. This time, on the small bleachers next to the mats. Rocky saw Jason heading their way and slumped his shoulders a bit. "Hey, Jason…guys…look umm…I don't know what I was thinking trying to take on Mondo by myself" he said embarrassingly, "I'm really sorry 'bout that" he soon added.

"Look man" Jason said raising his eyebrows, "you should know that I'm your friend" he added with a small chuckle, "and I'm just glad I'm on your team."

"Yeah…and hey, you can't save the world without working together right?" Rocky asked the group.

"Yeah…that's right" came from the others.

"And working together we accomplished something we never thought we would" Billy added in before having Tanya speak up as well.

"That's right. King Mondo is gone."

"We really _have_ won haven't we?" Adam asked still disbelieved that he was gone.

"No more bad guys" Kat said shaking her head and smiling.

"Yeah, let's go get a juice," Rocky said getting up turning around, "the new guy's buying," he said making the others laugh and walk toward the bar.

"I'll see you guys later" Tanya said waving as she stepped away from them toward the exit, "I got some stuff to do."

"Okay, bye" came from the rest of them who were now sitting in seats around the table.

Adam at this stepped aside as well and decided to walk behind her without saying a word. He decided finally to speak up once she took her first step outside.

"Tanya" he called out to her.

"What?" she asked him coldly as she still walked away from him.

"Let me just talk to you" he said witnessing her stop.

"Then talk." She turned around crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Look, I'm sorry I stayed out so late. I know I should've called you."

"You lied to me."

"I know. I'm really sorry. I should've never told you that I was sick. I know that, but…I just didn't know any other reason to give you." As soon as he let that sentence get its period, he began to kick himself harshly in the face mentally. He saw Tanya's face get even madder and she swiftly turned around. "Ok…sorry, that was a stupid thing to say" he told her pulling her back to face him.

"Tell me the truth…and don't make it sound stupid either."

"Fine. Look, she wanted some help with her soccer. I hate the Stone Canyon soccer teams. As soon as they found out I was moving to Angel Grove for good, they started hating me. The made my last week there a living hell, so, I knew that this was the only way to get back at them. I knew that if I trained Sherry hard enough and teach her some scoring skills, she'd win the game for us without a problem."

"That's why you've been focusing all your time with her?"

"I'm sorry Tanya. I should've told you how I strongly I felt about this. I just thought you'd say I was paranoid."

"You _are_ paranoid. But at least I understand a little more. Why didn't you tell Rocky _that_?"

"Because…his sister's on the soccer team in Stone Canyon. She didn't wanna register at Angel Grove and kept playing over there. If he knew what I was doing…then…" Adam couldn't find himself finishing his sentence.

Tanya nodded, "Okay, but, what about Sherry? Does she know what you were up to?"

"Yeah…she wants to beat them like any other team so she was _all_ for it" he said disappointed in himself in training Sherry the way he did. He knew she wanted to be trained hard, but she was too young to be doing what he was training her to do, to play like a professional.

"Look Adam, I'm not accepting your story as approval" she told him making him frown, "but…I'm accepting it as the truth." This made Adam look at her with hope in his eyes, "I just want you to know that if something like this is going on and it's going to disrupt what we have, I want you to talk to me about it. I want you to feel free to talk to me about anything."

Adam smiled as he saw her inching away from his lips.

"Now for the important part after this ordeal" she told him flirtatiously making him pull her in close by her waist.

"We make up right?"

"Well, there's that" she said cocking her head, "and…"

"and what?" he asked not changing his soft tone towards her.

"My training" she told him as she pulled away from him, "Boy, you owe me like two weeks worth of training."

Adam at this laughed under his breath, "Fine" he said still smiling at her.

"Good" she told him pulling him in and giving him a long kiss.

- - -

Up in the moon, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa began to make their plans for again regaining their places on the throne of what used to be their palace.

"All we need to do Zeddy is go back to Lunar and get off this moon!" Rita told him with her screeching voice getting thicker as she spoke.

"Yes my dear, but you forget, even thought King Mondo is gone, there is still the little matter of getting rid of that tin family he left behind" Zedd told his wife as his deep breaths got even deeper making his hoarse voice grow louder.

"Yup, that's right sissy" Rito told his sister making her turn toward him and act as if she was going to slap him again. An action getting a flinch from his part.

"Just get inside and we'll talk about this later" Zedd told them all knowing that he was just about to explode with rage their way if they didn't shut their mouths and get into the camper they were driving in.

"Okay, okay Ed…don't your shiny panties up in a bunch" Rito told him causing Goldar to laugh internally.

"It's Zedd you…" Zedd began to tell him as he too got into the RV walking behind Rita.

- - -

"I can't believe it…our first case in two weeks and they give us the wrong information" Skull told Bulk as they made their way out the Youth Center.

"Well, I can tell you this Skull, if we don't get another case soon, then I'll…"

"You'll what Bulkmier?" Lt. Stone asked him as he was unseen walking behind the two.

"Then I'll have to go and print out fliers of the company" Bulk told him making Jerome smile as he put his hands in his pockets.

"That's what I thought boys" he told both of them as he walked toward his car, "make me proud."

"Bulk, did you just agree to make fliers?" Skull asked Bulk who was still wondering what had happened.

"I don't know" Bulk told him as he raised his eyebrow.

"It's days like these that I miss having Rito and Goldar around" Skull told him as they both made their way to the Patrol Bike.

Tanya and Adam were making their way inside the Youth Center as Skull said that. They both stopped and looked at each other questionably. "Nah" they both said shaking their heads before Adam opened the door for Tanya to walk inside.


	24. Chapter XXIV

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I will be writing a short summary of the episode: 'Bomber in the Summer'._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXIV / Built up Feud**

While Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa continued on planning the destruction of the rangers, Zedd decided not to send any Tengas for fear of letting the rangers know they were back to finish what they started.

Without any trouble being caused, the teens were all glad that there wasn't much going on around them but the end of the school year. Though Rocky was still feeling a little down about losing Sherry, he was happy that he and Adam had started talking again after a couple of days of silence.

"Hey, what if we all go to the bowling alley?" Tommy asked all of them now that they were all just sitting around the picnic table.

"Nah…what if we play truth or dare?" Jason spoke up deviously.

"As long as it doesn't involve nudity…then I'm in" Kat stated making Rocky groan jokingly.

"We need a little zing to this though" Tanya told them causing them to look her way.

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked her.

"I don't know…it's just not fun playing just truth or dare. I mean…let's do something different for a change."

"Okay" Adam said surprising everyone as he quickly got up and touched Tanya swiftly, "tag…" he said running away, "you're it!"

Everyone at this got up quickly and started running in different directions. "Fine" Tanya told herself as she rolled her eyes and got up to chase Rocky.

"Hey batter, batter, batter" Jason taunted her before she stopped chasing Rocky and changed her direction toward Jason. Jason at this though changed his direction as well and dodged her hand coming at him. He arched his body forward just to get the tips of her fingers.

"I touched you!" Tanya yelled back before saying, "No touch backs!"

"Damn" he said under his breath as Tanya walked forward waiting for him to tag the next person.

Jason ran up to Tommy who was completely unaware of Jason getting tagged. "You're it" Jason told him making Tommy whine.

"No way man, she didn't even touch you" Tommy told him as he started running toward Billy.

Billy quickly dodged out of the way causing Tommy to run into Kat. Kat fell back making the others laugh. Tommy held his balance, as he remained laughing at Kat whom was still on the floor. "You're it" he told her with laughter.

Katherine got up swiping the grass off of the back of her jean shorts. She saw Rocky still not being able to control himself and quickly ran up to him and tagged him. "You're it" she told him as he started to run toward Adam now.

"Look, Tanya's all alone!" Adam yelled at Rocky as he pointed at his girlfriend.

"Adam! You just gave up your own girlfriend" Kat told him easily walking around as slow as she wanted to knowing that she was safe from getting tagged at that point.

"Behind you!" Tanya yelled in Rocky's direction. Rocky turned around to find a football heading his way. He ducked down to feel the swiftness of the spinning football flying fast enough passing his head to feel the small wind hit this hair.

Jason caught the ball coming at him at the same speed.

"Throw it will ya?" A guy in his early twenties yelled at him from afar.

"Why don't you at least give my friend an apology first?" Jason snapped at him.

The guy looked around at his friends and grinned. One of his friends came up to him. "You're not gonna take that are you Kevin?"

The guy he was referring to turned to him and Jason could hardly make out what he said.

"I said, toss it over here" Kevin told Jason walking up to him.

"And I said apologize to my friend" Jason retorted in the same tone.

Tommy saw the confrontation going back and forth always staying alert to whatever might happen. He knew that if something did in deed happen, Adam, Rocky, and Billy were in high alert as well.

"Oh man" could be heard coming from Tanya as she looked in Kat's direction. Kat at this just shook her head slightly showing she was saying the same thing mentally.

"Listen kid, I don't need to apologize to anyone. I've killed people for less than this. Now give me the damn ball."

Jason saw the guy heading toward them and threw it in a completely different direction from where the guy was. The other friend went toward it and saw Kevin turning his way then turning back to face Jason, which was now just inches away from him now.

"You shouldn't have done that" he told him in which Jason just grinned at.

Tommy and Adam made their way toward their still grinning friend. "Listen man, we don't want any trouble" Tommy told him while he was pulling Jason away from the guy.

"It's too late for that now isn't it?"

"Look, you guys already have your ball back, now go back and finish your game" Adam said trying to sound reasonable.

Jason crossed his hands in front of him to show that he was as mellow as can be toward the whole situation. He showed absolutely no fear toward the older guy.

"You are _so_ lucky you have your little friends here to protect you" the guy told him as he turned around and walked away.

"Jason…what the hell has gotten into you man?" Tommy told Jason after they saw Kevin far away now.

"I don't know man. I wanted that guy to punch me so badly. I don't know what's up with that man." Jason shook his head in not knowing what was wrong with him nor his body that was mentally aching for a punch.

Billy at this sighed and turned to the girls, "How 'bout we stop here. I think we need to talk to Jason alone."

The girls at this nodded and looked at each other. "Movie?" Tanya asked Kat in which she got in response a nod. The girls left leaving the guys to sort out their problems.

"Man Jase, I know how you're feeling. You've been in the battle for like what, a week? All of a sudden you have the power yet don't have anything to use it on. I know it can be really frustrating" Tommy assured his friend.

"Yeah, Tommy's right Jason. I know I feel the same way, and we've been fighting for a while before you came along." Rocky walked up to the three that were still standing in their same location.

"How 'bout you get all that anger out with sparring?" Adam suggested knowing that sparring always took a lot of stress out of him.

Jason looked at his friends silently before nodding. "You guys are right. I guess I've just been feeling a little out of it cuz Mondo's gone. I really wanted to get a piece of him you know?"

"And you did" Billy told him walking toward them.

"What about monsters. I mean, we're not going to be able to fight anymore."

Tommy at this placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Trust me man, I know for sure that there is always going to be evil here wanting to take over the world. You'll get your chance."

"Yeah" Rocky added, "Why _else_ would Zordon and Alpha let us keep our powers."

This made the others nod and look at one another. "Movie?" Adam asked them wanting everyone to say yes.

"You just wanna go see Tanya don't you?" Tommy asked him cockily as he began to make his way to his truck.

"Yup" Adam told them, which made them laugh.

- - -

The teens could be seen sitting on two rows in the center back. On the top row Adam sat next to Tanya that had Billy to her right. In front of him, Jason sat down having Kat to his left. Rocky was next and to his left was Tommy.

"But you're okay now right?" Kat asked Jason after he told her what they had talked about.

"Yeah" he told her nodding.

"Good. I don't want you getting your urges and punching me in the middle of the movie" she told him jokingly making him laugh.

"Don't worry, I won't" he said shaking his head and again looking her over without letting her notice.

"So" she told him making him look at her eyes again, "How many girlfriends have you had?" she asked him trying to start a new conversation.

"A few. And you?"

"None. I think girls are beautiful, but…" she started saying again jokingly causing him to break her sentence.

"No" he said laughing, "how many boyfriends have you had?"

"Seriously? Hmmm" she said looking at the top of the movie screen.

"Lost count?" he told her making her laugh.

"No!" she said breaking her statement with laughter, "Like four. That counted of course."

"Seems _you_ got around" he said smiling at her before putting his arm out at having her hit him playfully making him laugh even more.

"I did not! They were like maybe a month or less."

"In Australia?"

"Yeah…well, except for two that I've had here. And you? How long have your relationships lasted?"

"I don't know. I have my choice with flavor of the week" he said cockily before laughing at her gasped look, "I'm kidding. I've had one serious relationship" he told her lifting up his index finger, "but after her, they've all been just a couple of weeks. Nothing more."

"So are you into serious dating? Or are just playing games?" she asked him as she crossed her left leg over her right making her even more sexy than he thought she was already.

"It depends" he told her quietly before softening his voice even more as he looked at her flirtatiously, "if the right girl came around…then" he started to say before seeing Rocky put his head back and showing Tommy. As soon as he saw him, he remembered his friend's crush, "I don't know. You know…whatever happens…happens" he told her quickly reclining himself back.

"Oh" Kat said pulling back as well.

The lights dimmed causing the ruckus to die down a bit and causing everyone to look up at the screen.

- - -

The next morning wasn't a different one from the day before. The climate was the same, but the only difference was that Ernie had asked his best customers if they could help him move tables and chairs over to the beach for the opening of his new Beach Club to expand his business.

They all thought it would be a great idea since most of the students were going to spend most of their summer vacation at the beach having that it was going to be a scorching summer that year.

What they didn't have in mind were the bikers heading their way as they prepared the place. The six teens recognized two of them as Kevin and his friend. Jason mentally sighed at knowing that they were there for nothing but trouble.

After their confrontation, Jason recognized the guy on the motorcycle in front of him. It was the guy that was talking to Kevin. He remained calm though he just wanted to bash his head in. Another thing caught his eye. The beautiful girl behind him holding his sides. He noticed her elephant necklace hanging around her neck, yet still said nothing about it.

That afternoon, after Ernie had decided to take down the Beach Club and start nothing at all, Jason was furious with the bikers. He saw a blond girl sitting at the bar alone and instantly recognized her. He walked up to her and asked tried to get her to change her boyfriend's mind of his ways.

"Eddie's not my boyfriend, and he's hardheaded" was her response.

Jason saw her elephant pendant while deep in thought. He tried another way to get her to listen to him. He asked her to go on a walk with him. They ended up walking toward the beach, Jason still trying to convince her into talking to her friend. She then explained to him that she was new in town and Eddie was the first to be her friend. Jason instantly knew that she wasn't part of the crowd, just hung around them.

Louie Kaboom, the new monster that Zedd and Rita had sent down to earth to take over the rangers appeared at the beach making Jason want to protect Emily, the new girl, any way that he could. The rangers' new enemy, Louie Kaboom, turned Emily's necklace into a monster, which was destroyed by the rangers. Louie then left with the famous, "I'll destroy you rangers" line. Once more, Jason knew they had a new enemy to defend the world against.

Rita and Zedd sent Louie to destroy the rangers under their command. What they didn't have in store though was that he would betray them in wanting to rule the earth for himself. Soon they realized that not only did they have the rangers and the still standing Machine Empire to deal with, now they had to get rid of their own greedy creation.

- - -

Later that day, Ernie tried a second chance with the Beach Club after Eddie and his friends came up to the team; in specific Jason. He told him how he'd heard about Jason helping Emily and like that instantly liked Jason. He then told Ernie that he'd help with the preparations on the Beach Club, getting his friends to help them.

After everything was in place, the rangers all sat around one of the table talking about their new enemy.

"So, who are we fighting against her, Zedd and Rita, or Louie Kaboom?" asked a very confused Rocky.

"I don't know man, but I'll tell you something, it doesn't sound good" Tommy said having everyone look at him with worried faces.


	25. Chapter XXV

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I will be mentioning the episodes: 'The Lure of Auric' and 'The Joke's on Blue'._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXV / Gasket and Archerina**

"I sure am gonna miss you" Kat told Tanya as she finished helping her friend unpack her things into her new home.

"Yeah…it's gonna be hard not knowing that your best friend is just next door to your room" Tanya told Kat as her eyes started tearing up.

In the past events, Tanya received a package along with a map from Aisha back in Africa. The belongings were her parents' and they would have wanted her to have them. After her parents got Auric the Conqueror's containment, Louie Kaboom got it from them. JeAnne and Richard Sloan became trapped inside the cave with no way out. In the mean time, Sprocket had gotten his hands on Auric. He told him that the rangers were evil and he must destroy them. Auric, being from the side of good, went to do as he was told. The rangers soon said the name of Zordon and Auric retreated his attack on them. Jason got the key, which opened Auric and kept it promising Tanya that he would take care of it. After the ordeal, Tanya went to the cave and saved her parents from getting crushed from the closing walls.

Her parents, both being explorers from all around the world, had finally found their long lost daughter after many years of thinking she was gone for good. They decided to stay in Angel Grove and resume their lives by following their first dreams of becoming archeologists. Tanya could not be happier. She finally found her parents and was now going to live with both of them in a house they bought after they arrived in Angel Grove with the help of Emily's mom, Jacqueline Hudson, whom was in the Real Estate business.

"At least we don't live that far from each other" Tanya said looking at the positive side of things.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess it's better this way. You have your parents" Katherine told her friend with a warm smile.

The two girls heard the door open and JeAnne peered her head through the crack, "Girls, dinner is almost ready" she told the girls as they both kept placing things in their respective places once more.

"We'll be right down mom," Tanya said getting a warm feeling at that.

- - -

After their meal, the girls were going to meet Adam at the bowling alley so they could all play a game of pool. On their way there, the rangers got a distressed signal coming from Zordon by their communicators.

"This is Kat, we read you Zordon" the blond Australian answered the call.

"_KAT, TANYA AND YOU ARE NEEDED AT THE POWER CHAMBER IMMEDIATELY_" Zordon's voice was heard through the small speaker on her wrist.

"We're on our way" Tanya said confidently before the two girls looked at each other then teleported out.

- - -

On the moon, Rita and Zedd were getting restless at everything going on around them. Rito was moving around the television antenna to get reception, Goldar was flipping the channels giving Rito directions of where to point it, and Finster was away making so much noise as he prepared a monster that was not coming out the way he planned yet again.

Rita sat up from the chair and walked over to Zedd who was sitting on the steps of their moving home.

"Zeddy" she told him as she stopped right in front of him, "I want to go home to my daddy."

"Now pumpkin" he told her as softly as he could, "you know dearest daddy doesn't want me around." He tried to continue on with his fake tone, but couldn't bare it and started yelling in her direction, "So we can't go back to that retched man's house! That has got to be the foulest smelling monster on the face of the earth!"

Rita at this got instantly mad and looked at Zedd, "How dare you talk about my father like that. He's been nothing but nice to you. You know, he didn't _have_ to take us in. If you'd be any kind of a husband, you would've gotten us our house back!"

Zedd couldn't take it anymore. He had to do something to fix things. He knew he couldn't go on like this any longer. "Rito! Goldar!" he called out to them, "get me my chrome polish! We're having dinner guests!"

- - -

"What is that thing?" Tommy said, as they were all now in the Power Chamber looking at the viewing globe.

"It seems to be some kind of interdimensional jet coming into the earth's atmosphere from Hoarst. That's where the shield was set to come from" Billy noted, "It seems to be coming at a rapid speed."

"Have you figured out who's in there?" Tanya asked.

"I haven't, but I'm sure we'll know soon enough."

"Wait a minute" Billy said as he started pressing buttons.

"What? What is it?" Kat asked quickly.

"It can't be."

"What? Tell us Billy" Rocky suggested.

"It stopped…on the moon."

"I thought it was gonna come here on land" Adam pondered.

"I thought so too. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's landed."

- - -

"Zeddy!" Rita said as she looked up at the dark sky and saw the figure coming toward the moon at a speed that was sure to made an earthquake.

"What Rita…what is it?"

"Look!" she said pointing at the object.

"Oh no" Zedd said, "it can't be."

- - -

Queen Machina walked onto the balcony of the palace. Klank had told her to look outside and she did. As soon as she did, she saw him arriving.

"Gasket!" she said out loud having Sprocket by her side.

"Oh no…not him!" Sprocket whined as he made himself over to the ship. "Big brother."

"Yes Sprocket…I'm home. It's time to take care of what my father couldn't take care of. Mother, I'm taking over the world!" Gasket said before looking to his right where his wife Archerina was getting off, "Mother…this is my loving wife…you've met her before."

"Yes dear" his mother told him as she grind her metallic teeth, "you know how I feel about her."

"Yes, I do," said Archerina walking up to her, "and believe me…I wouldn't have it any other way."

The couple walked off to find Klank. "See what you can do with this dump" Gasket told his wife as they both passed by the main entry. "I'm going to find Klank and have a little talk with him."

"Yes dear" Archerina told him as she looked around the house more.

- - -

Louie Kaboom walked down the dark hallway heading toward Klank's lab when he bumped into Gasket.

"Who are you?" Gasket asked his inferior.

"I'm Louie Kaboom, who the hell are you?"

"I'm the ruler of this palace."

"That's where you're wrong pal. _I'm_ the ruler of this palace."

"Get out of my way…I have business to attend to" Gasket told him as he pushed Louie to the side and made him bang his rocket-like body onto the side of the wall.

"How dare you?" Louie told him as he pushed Gasket aside, "No one pushes me unless I'm drunk!"

"Well, you _sure_ are acting like a drunken person I'll tell you that much. Now get out of my way you very meager excuse for a ruler."

"Listen you…"

"Prince Gasket" Klank told him after he came into the hallway after hearing the commotion going on, "I didn't know you were coming back for your father's forgiveness."

"I'm not…I'm coming back for my fathers place as King. I heard what happened to him…and as soon as I get rid of the Power Rangers, I will be king. Klank, start preparations on a plan that will surely get rid of them all."

"Yes sire" Klank told him knowing that he must not upset Gasket having him carry around his sword everywhere he went made the henchman nervous.

"Wait a minute!" Louie Kaboom told the both of them, "I have a say in this too. Klank, don't listen to this metal head. You work for me remember?"

"Yes your…" Klank began to say before being cut off by Gasket.

"Now you listen to me, you will not have your place as a ruler in here…" Gasket began to tell him before Archerina showed up.

"Dear, I'm thinking of a pink tone in the main corridors."

"One minute my love, I'm taking care of a parasite."

"Oh, well, hello" Archerina told Louie in her favorite flirtatious manner.

"Don't hello me you Pepto-Bismol wannabe" Louie snapped at her before being pushed yet again by Gasket.

"Don't you talk about my wife like that…" They kept arguing in the hallway as Archerina walked by them and toward Klank.

"Well hello Klank…long time no see sweetie" she told him in a sweet manner making Klank realize that she wanted something from him.

"Yes your majesty…what is it that you will be needing?"

"A love potion dear…to get rid of this mangy little pest we have running around here."

"If you mean Prince Sprocket…"

"Oh no…not that little…ugh…I mean this oversized rocket thinking he could take over my darlings place. I have just the thing for him" she told Klank as they both walked into Klank's lab.

- - -

"What do you suppose we do?" Rocky asked them getting frustrated at the fact that everyone was in different locations in the Power Chamber trying to find what was Louie up to.

"Maybe Louie sent in some reinforcements" Kat took a stab at it.

"I don't think so. I mean…he was a creation not too long ago. I don't really think he has that many friends around the universe" Tanya said as she walked passed her friend and next to Billy.

"Tanya's right. What do you suppose it could be Billy?" Adam asked, wanting his friend to find something after being in front of the consoles for more than an hour now.

Everyone looked in Billy's direction and saw him sigh. "I'm sorry guys, I don't have anything yet."

Katherine walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "We know you're trying your best Billy. I know that if we knew this Power Chamber like you did, we'd all be doing a lot more than just waiting around for you to have an answer."

Everyone at this nodded before the alarms in the Power Chamber went off making everyone look in the direction of the flashing lights, then at each other.

"What is it?" Jason said walking quickly to the consoles.

"It appears to be Louie" Billy told them as he pressed the image up on the viewing globe for everyone to see.

- - -

The rangers all sat around the Youth Center after their classes had let out. Archerina had placed a love spell over Louie Kaboom to fall in love with her. After seeing that it had worked, Archerina and Gasket both sent Louie down to earth to defeat the rangers. The rangers defeated Kaboom without knowing that now they had Gasket and Archerina to deal with.

"I'm sure glad those jokes that Humphrey and Bogart pulled are all over with," Rocky said as he smeared ketchup on his fries.

"I wish I could've been here" Tommy told them as he too sat around the table, "to see the look on your faces, but…what did Adam get as a practical joke?"

Everyone shrugged at this and looked in Adam's direction. Adam at this shrugged as well after seeing everyone's reaction to it. "Guess I'm really liked around here" he said cockily making everyone roll their eyes at him.

"So Tommy, how was the resort? Did you and David have a good time?" Katherine asked seeing that everyone was now waiting for another conversation to pick up.

"Yeah…we had a great time. We even went to visit an uncle of mine. He showed us his cars and jet skis. We had a blast on those things. After that, we sparred at the beach. I had forgotten how great it was to spar with him again."

"Is he coming back to Angel Grove any time soon?" Jason asked Tommy feeling happy for his friend that he found his brother, but a little jealous that Tommy had a great sparring partner as well. Jason in the back of his head though was thinking if David was a better sparring partner for Tommy than he was.

"Not for a while. He said he'd be here though, he just doesn't know when."

"That's real cool man" was the only thing that came out of Jason's mouth.

- - -

**A/N: **I know I'm moving things along pretty quickly here but honestly, I don't really care much for Louie nor would I know a situation with him in it…so…I decided to move it right along with Gasket's turn. Tell me if you guys think I'm moving it along a bit _too_ fast.


	26. Chapter XXVI

_Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers; never will. They are the property of Disney. Batman: The Animated Series belongs to DC Comics. I will be mentioning parts from the episodes: 'King for a Day Parts 1 and 2' and 'A Brief Mystery of Time'._

**A/N:** I got the idea from a Batman: The Animated Series episode. Well, I changed it around…a lot.

**Budding**

**Chapter XXVI / Archenemies **

The classroom full of teens was taking Ms. Applebee's pop quiz. Tommy sat in the front-center of the room next to Rocky whom was sweating profusely at not knowing anything about the test having that he did not read the book.

Jason sat behind Rocky answering some of the questions that he already knew, knowing that he would go back to the rest and answer them too. Kat sat behind Jason as she too answered the questions that she already knew.

"Okay class, pencils down" Ms. Applebee ordered.

"What?" asked a confused Rocky, "you didn't tell us this was going to be a timed test."

"I don't believe I have to say that Rocky" Ms. Applebee answered him.

The students, like Rocky, were dumbfounded by Ms. Applebee's timed quiz as they did what she said.

"Man, there goes _my _B for this class" Rocky told Tommy.

"Tell me about it, I just answered seven questions" Tommy said.

"That's six more than _I_ did" Rocky told him as Ms. Applebee went around the class and started picking up the quizzes.

- - -

The Zeo team gathered at the Youth Center after school as they usually did.

"I know what you mean, she gave us a pop quiz too" Tanya Sloan told the group as they all sat around at their usual table.

Billy then came back with a soda as he sat down saying, "I'm sure glad I don't have to go through those tests anymore."

"Oh come on Billy, like if you had any trouble in the first place" Rocky told the boy genius.

"Just because I didn't have any trouble taking tests doesn't mean I didn't think it was a pain in the butt."

"So" Jason said changing the conversation, "who's up for a little Frisbee at the park?"

"Ooh" Tanya said getting Adam's hand, "Come on Adam, I need to get to the Resource Center before we have some fun."

Tanya pulled Adam up off his chair and dragged him out of the Youth Center causing the other teens to laugh at Adam's confused expression.

"Well, I guess we should be heading to the park while they go over to the school" Rocky suggested.

"Sounds like a plan" Tommy said getting up off his chair.

The five remaining sitting teens got up as well and left the Youth Center towards the park.

- - -

Up in the Machine Empire, Gasket was plotting a plan to destroy the rangers to take over the world yet again.

"Now Klank, I've told you before, that will not work! I need something that no one will suspect" Gasket told his servant.

"I know sire, but…"

"Dear, don't get ahead of yourself. Remember what happened when you tried to take over the Red Zeo Ranger's brain" his wife Archerina told him.

"Yes, I know my love, but I know that this time won't be as bad as the repeating of time either."

At that, a short mechanical boy came barging in the balcony disrupting his brother's plan yet again.

"Oh big brother…" he said in his usual mocking voice, "I have news for you" Sprocket said upon entering.

"You mechanical piece of tin! What have I told you about getting into my affairs!"

"But…big brother…"

"No! Away with you!"

"Now my love" Archerina spoke, "let's hear what he has to say."

"Fine, on with it Sprocket!"

"Now, I know how you want to get rid of the Power Rangers, so I arranged for you to have a meeting with Dream Master."

"Does he make people's dreams come true?" Klank asked. As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he said too much.

"Klank! Never speak when you are not spoken to!" Gasket ordered.

"Yes sire" Klank pleaded with his master as he bowed down to him, "I apologize sire."

"You've done it this time" a chirpy voice came from Klanks shoulder having it to be Orbus.

"Quiet you!" Klank ordered the miniature sized robot.

"Quiet…both of you!" Prince Gasket said as he made his way towards his younger brother, "Now Sprocket, are you positively sure the Dream Master will help me get rid of the rangers?"

"Of course big brother. When have I ever stirred you wrong?" the young mechanical robot asked, yet still not wanting to be answered such a question that would definitely lead towards more chaos between him and his older brother.

- - -

"Hey, over here!" Tommy yelled at Jason whom had the Frisbee at hand.

"Here you go," he yelled in his direction throwing it a bit further than he had hoped. "Oops, sorry" he said before sprinting towards it waving with his hand towards Kat that he would get it making her halt from running towards the Frisbee.

Jason had not realized the Frisbee had flown so far. He knew it had to be behind one of the large bushes next to the big oak tree so he decided to a take a couple of more steps towards it.

"Looking for this?" a female voice asked him as he was crouched down searching for the Frisbee.

Jason turned around and saw a pair of tight blue jeans with white sneakers. He kept looking up at her taking in her nicely figured body with every second. As he got to her face, he could feel his mouth starting to grin. He got up and stretched out his hand for the Frisbee.

"Hi Emily" he told her as he retrieved the Frisbee from the green-eyed beauty.

"Hey yourself" she said giving him a flirtatious look that Jason loved.

"Not working?" he asked trying to keep the conversation going as he couldn't help but look into her eyes as they turned from green to light green as a cloud uncovered the hot sun.

"Not today. I decided to come to the park and study a bit for next week's test."

"Oh…" was the only thing that came out of his mouth before realizing that he had nothing to say. While thinking that, he experienced a sense of mental blankness as he worried about the no subject matter and started to get even more nervous than he already was.

"Playing Frisbee?" she asked making him breathe out a breath of relief now.

"Yeah" he said in the smoothest possible manner he could, "care to play?"

"Uh…sure why not?" she said as she smiled at him and followed in his direction.

- - -

"Ahhh, Dream Master, it's been a while" Gasket said as he went over and shook hands with the cloaked spirit.

"Yes Gasket, it has. How long has it been?" he said as he remained floating in the air.

"I'd say around three-hundred years or so."

"It seems like the time just flies by doesn't it? I remember that it wasn't so long ago that you would often have your brother's mental abilities to try and take over a planet just because you were in a good mood."

"Hmm…tell me Dream Master, what do you want in return of you helping me getting rid of the Power Rangers?"

"Right away getting down to business" the dark see-through spirit spoke in his rough voice, "just like your father."

"If I was like my father, I'd be recuperating from a bad fight right now, wouldn't I?"

"What's to say you won't?"

This made Gasket infuriate before getting up and going towards the darkness.

"I will have you know that I am nothing like my father! Unlike him, I will get rid of the Power Rangers! With or without your help!"

"That is just what I wanted to hear" Dream Master said deviously, "Let's get started…immediately."

- - -

Prince Sprocket was now in his room after he ran from the meeting his brother had with the Universe's Lord of Desires, the Dream Master.

"I'm telling you Klank, my plan is working just fine."

"But sire, what if Prince Gasket _does _get rid of the rangers?" Klank said going over and fixing the boy's toys that he left lying around yet again.

"That's the beauty of it. Even if Gasket _does_ get rid of those mangy power brats, he won't have any choice but to step down from the throne."

"May I ask why, your majesty?"

"Oh Klank, must I explain everything to you? As soon as my mom gets back from taking care of father in Meckanica, she'll find out that Gasket has made a deal with father's archenemy. It's great! Dad's gonna find out about Gasket's plan, and kick him out for sure, making me the ruler of Earth!"

All Prince Sprocket could do at this point was sit and relax to watch his bother get himself into loads of trouble with the King of the Machine Empire.

- - -

"Alright, I'll see you guys later" Tommy told them as he walked over to his truck in the parking lot looking over at Kat. "Need a ride?" he asked hoping it the answer would be a 'yes'.

"Umm" she started to say before Tanya jumped in.

"Yeah, she does," she said as she took the keys from Kat and pushed her towards Tommy's direction

"Bye" Kat told the rest of the team as she started walking and glaring at Tanya. "I guess that's a yes," she said trying to act emotionless.

"See ya girl" Tanya was now walking hand in hand with Adam as they both waved at Jason and Emily.

"Man, I _really_ need a girlfriend" Rocky said as he saw his friends separating into different locations. The statement although heard softly by the others, made them laugh at their comical friend.

Billy walked back towards Rocky and pulled him towards his direction, "Come on Rocko, we're gonna go get you a date."

Rocky at this looked up at the sky and shook his head lightly, "I don't know Billy, I mean, school's just started and I _still_ haven't found a date all throughout the summer vacation."

Billy chuckled lightly at his friend as he remained pulling him like a puppet away towards the parking lot.

- - -

"Which one of these little pathetic rangers are we going to get first?" Gasket asked the Dream Master.

"Just wait and see" he said as he turned in Tommy's direction. "That's their pitiful leader isn't it?"

"Yes" Gasket whispered a bit, for fear of having his plans get ruined.

"Well then, give me all the information you have on him."

- - -

"Hmm…Klank…I wonder" Sprocket said as the boy robot went over to one of his toys and picked it up.

"What is it your majesty?"

"What if…perhaps, this mission for my brother weren't so easily done."

"I _do_ apologize your grace, but…I don't seem to understand."

"Well, what if someone were to hint the rangers about something to come?"

"Uhh…what do you have in mind Sprocket?"

"What's the _one_ thing the rangers always look for before a monster attack?"

"Umm" thought Orbus, "monsters?"

"Cogs you idiot!" Sprocket yelled at the small robot on Klank's shoulder, "Cogs! That's the one thing that sets off a monster attack. Jeez, don't you guys ever have a chance to think in life?"

"Well, since we're usually doing the thinking for _you_" Orbus snapped at the young prince.

"What!" Sprocket yelled at Orbus, then turning to Klank as he spoke, "you better get your parasite some manners Klank, before a gag him!"

"Uhh…uhh…yes, certainly your majesty" Klank said as he again bowed down to the boy before turning to his companion, "Listen here Orbus…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know" the robot said as he closed his eyes and manually shut down.

"Now Klank, listen to me" Sprocket said forgetting about the incident at the time and going back to his plan to try to make his brother's job harder.

"Anything you say" Klank said as he went over and sat on a chair to listen to Sprocket. He knew he beat Sprocket by many years, but still couldn't say one thing to the lad; for fear of having him yell at him and Orbus making both of them maybe lose their positions as the King's Council.


	27. Chapter XXVII

_Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers; never will. They are the property of Disney. Batman: The Animated Series belongs to DC Comics._

**A/N: **The battle chapter isn't quite ready yet so I decided to do something new for a change and just do a chapter of the rangers getting called into the Power Chamber. Hope it's not _too_ boring.

**Budding **

**Chapter XXVII / The Call **

"This place is great isn't it?" Jason asked his crush, as they were both now sitting atop of a small hill just out of the park.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Emily took both hands and wrapped them around her waist expressing the breeze that was falling on her.

"Cold?" Jason asked as he wrapped his left arm around her making him wonder what possessed him to do it. It wasn't like he didn't know what he was doing. He'd been out on several dates with different girls, just not a girl like Emily. She was beautiful, independent, and to be truthful to himself, what _really_ attracted him to her was the intimidation he felt whenever he was around her.

"Not anymore" she said as she again gave him the flirtatious look.

Jason smiled at her as her eyes captivated him yet again.

"Emily"

"Yes Jason?"

"I…uh...I really…"

Jason couldn't finish his statement from having his communicator go off. He motioned down to his wrist and covered it.

"What was that?" asked Emily as she witnessed this.

"Umm…it's nothing. I just forgot that I had to help my dad with something."

"Oh, is it like an alarm?"

"Uhh…yeah…that's exactly what it is," Jason said as he got up.

"Alright, so…I'll see you tomorrow?" Emily asked with that same look making Jason smile even though he knew there might be a crisis going on.

"Yeah…definitely" he said before he saw her turn around and wave goodbye. He waved as well, before answering his communicator.

- - -

"I told you man, I don't need a date" Rocky told a still nagging Billy.

"Oh no. You mope around all day long talking about girls and how you can't get one. Now it's your chance."

"I know I can get one, I just don't know what to say."

"That's what _I'm _here for" Billy said as he pushed Rocky towards a short Caucasian girl near a stop sign.

"Hi" Rocky said as he was shoved her way.

The girl took a step back and looked at Rocky conceitedly from head to toe.

"Hey" she said tonelessly.

"Waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, my ride."

"Hmm…so, nice purse you got there" Rocky told her as he saw Billy walk behind the girl and stay a couple feet away from her while looking at Rocky.

"Thanks, I like your shirt" she countered as she noticed Rocky's AC/DC shirt he had on.

"Thank you" he said gentleman-like before he saw Billy motioning for him to say something.

Billy at this shrugged his shoulders as he lipped, 'what are', then pointed at Rocky while he lipped, 'you doing', and ending it with sticking out two fingers and then circling his hands in the air meaning 'tonight'.

Rocky at this was completely confused and looked from Billy to the girl as he said, "What do…I…do…two…circles?"

Billy raised his hands up knowing Rocky had completely messed up.

The girl at this turned around and saw Billy and looked back at Rocky while saying, "What?"

"Umm…" Billy said as she looked at Rocky confused.

"Nothing" Rocky said as he looked down.

"Right" the girl said as she saw the car pulling up to the stop sign, "see ya around circle boy."

Rocky instantly looked at Billy annoyed.

"What was all this?" Rocky asked him as he mimicked Billy's hand movements.

"This was, what are…you…doing to…night."

"This," Rocky said making two circles in the air, "is _not_ night."

"Well, how would you do it?"

"Like this…"

The two remained arguing for some time, as they didn't care much for the bypassing pedestrians looking at them from time to time.

As Rocky again said something out of left field towards Billy, his communicator went off.

They both stopped the joking around and looked at each other seriously as Rocky looked around to who was looking at them.

Billy on the other hand looked around to find a safe spot to answer the communicator. He found one as he saw a medium sized building not too far from where they were. He turned back at Rocky and motioned with his head towards the building.

Rocky at this nodded before following Billy and answering the call.

- - -

"So Adam, have you practiced any good moves lately?" Tanya asked her boyfriend as they were still walking hand in hand; just this trip led right to the ocean shore.

"Nah. I came up with a couple of moves, just haven't really practiced them yet."

"How do you think you guys are gonna do against Stone Canyon this year?" Tanya asked him about their upcoming tournament against the rival school of Angel Grove.

"I don't know. To be honest with you, I don't really think I wanna go _through_ with it."

"But why?" Tanya asked halting which made Adam halt as well.

"Nothing big really. It's just that I feel like I have to take a break from all of the martial arts expos to feel like if that's what I wanna do in life."

Tanya nodded her comprehension towards the situation. "Yeah" she said looking out into the dark water.

"Am I being selfish?"

"Of course not Adam. You're just in the state of mind that wants to look for itself right now."

"I don't really know if the rest of the guys would understand."

"I'm sure they would. Adam, you're a great part of their team but I'm sure that the boys will understand."

"To tell you the truth Tanya, I'm not so sure. I just hope you're right."

"Hey, I'm a woman remember? I'm always right." Her sense of humor was something that attracted Adam to Tanya while playing baseball with her. He knew that no matter how bad a situation got, Tanya would always be there for him to make it better.

"Yeah…you are," he said smiling at her shyly before taking her other hand as well and giving her a passionate kiss on her lips.

After the kiss broke, the two looked at one another and were getting ready for another as Adam's communicator sounded.

They both groaned at the sound as Adam put his left wrist up towards the upper part of his chest.

"Go ahead Zordon, this is Adam" he said tonelessly.

"_Adam_" Alpha was heard through the small speaker, "_we need you and Tanya to teleport to the Power Chamber immediately_."

"Right Alpha" Tanya said as she looked at Adam.

"We're on our way" Adam said before they too teleported into the Power Chamber.

- - -

Tommy walked into his bedroom and shut the door behind him. He shook his head at the fun time he had; especially the drive back was what had him grinning. He had just dropped off Kat making himself wonder for the third time why he didn't ask her out tonight.

He went over to his nightstand kicking off his shoes in the process. He picked up his clock radio and set the buzzer for 6am. He took off his shirt, stripped down to his boxers, and took out what was inside his pockets.

As he placed his wallet and other belongings on his nightstand, he noticed his picture was turned towards the right when it's usually turned to his left. He picked it up and looked at it.

Staring at the faces of his old friends always put a smile on Tommy's face. He looked at Zack; always so loyal and even seemed to have a way of putting a smile on peoples' faces. Trini's exotic looks got her many dates in high school; but it was her martial arts skills that really impressed Tommy. Kimberly's smile and brown eyes was what captivated him in the first place. He knew that even though she was petite and thin, her agility would always help them through. Even if he's not out in the battlefield, Billy still had a way to save everyone from a jam. He's, in Tommy's opinion, the reason why the Zeo team is still standing. Finally Jason was the last face he looked at. His best friend was like a brother to him. No matter how sappy or sensitive Tommy's problem was he knew Jason would be there to listen.

He put the frame down in the right direction and went over to the dresser to take off his bandana. He remembered his band holding up his straight ponytail and removed it before anything.

As he placed it down on the dresser, he looked at his recent team and smiled once more. He realized he'd made so many new friends with just being a ranger; something he didn't even think of until now. He took off his bandana as he noticed Aisha not being in any of the pictures and started reminiscing about old times he had with everyone. He then also noticed that Jason wasn't in this picture and smiled as he made a mental note of telling the team to take a new picture later in the week. As his smile faded, Tommy noticed something else on the Zeo team's picture from the reflection of the glass. He saw a dark cloaked figure standing in back of him very closely. As soon as he made the figure out, he quickly turned around and his eyes widened at having nothing to see. He could've sworn he saw something and instantly thought that it was either his mind playing tricks on him, or another one of Gasket's plans. Either way, he would keep his guard up.

_Man_, he thought to himself,_ I really gotta get some sleep. I bet it's just my eyes telling me that they need to rest_. With that, he went over to his bed. Seeing as how it was a warm night, he decided to cover himself with a light sheet. He got under the sheet and placed his hands in back of his head as he waited for sleep.

As he looked up at the white ceiling, he thought about Jason and Emily. Jason was talking nonstop about Emily more and more as the weeks progressed. Did he finally get the guts to ask her out? _How could I ask that question when I'm too scared to ask Kat out_? He then thought about what Adam had told him, 'Even going out with Kim took that first step'. _But I took a first step, then a second. By the time we actually kiss, I'll be sprinting at eighty years old_. He couldn't help that thought from coming, and the next from escaping.

The thought of kissing Kat made him get a feeling in his stomach that he didn't understand what it was. It was a short bland pain that quickly went away when thinking about her. Yet now, he started thinking about more than just her personality.

He pictured her in front of him. Her radiant blond hair that seemed as if every strand was individually brushed to get the perfect look he saw every day. He just loved it when she would pass by him in class leaving her sweet aroma for him to smell for a couple of seconds. That scent that often came to him when he's just sitting down and reading causing him to think about her and forget what he's doing. Her beautiful blue eyes looking into his, as he saw her soft pink lips moving sensually. He remembered being in the Resource Center with her witnessing her bite down on part of her lip as she tried to study. How he would never forget that moment. Until then, he never knew how a simple bodily gesture could stir so much excitement in his body. He especially liked her voice, which crept into him softly; with that accent that just drove him crazy from the moment that he first heard her.

He pictured her cream-like skin being caressed by his hands; outlining the skirt she wore letting him see her long soft legs. Just thinking of her in a tight pink blouse showing off her thin waistline and well sized breasts was something he loved to do.

He imagined being with her in his truck. Just them two letting the light darkness fall on them as they stared out towards the beautiful city. He moved towards her letting her come in as well to meet her with a kiss that started off soft and intensified itself somehow. Just letting his hands wander all over her body, from placing his hand on her chest and letting it fall as he pushed his palm forward before grabbing her hip and pressuring it gently. He thought about caressing her legs down to her shins as he moved his hand back up to her knees. Contracting his hand on her thigh and softly taking it up her skirt made Tommy feel a bit warmer than he already was.

Tommy started to get a tingling sensation under his sheet. The heat that had been inside his head wandered out into the open causing his thoughts to arouse him making him get up and go to the bathroom to finish his thoughts about his long-time crush.

Tommy came out of the bathroom and again got under the covers, he closed his eyes before opening them as he heard the sound of his communicator.

"This is Tommy" he answered before his mentor gave him the same message the others had received.

- - -

Katherine felt her toes soothing as she made her way into the tub. Her hurting body was what made her want to take a bath in the first place. She placed her hands on each side of the tub and slowly sat down wincing from the soreness that she felt.

As she put her head back and took a deep breath, she remembered the battle that happened just a few days ago. She looked at her bruises and saw that they showed absolutely no sign of recuperation. Her upper abdomen was shooting out pain from the blow she had received from fighting with the Cogs.

Closing her eyes, she thought about what she was going through. Everything she had been through was happening so fast in her life. She thought she would be a normal teenager living in America when she was flying over the seas from Australia. Not having in mind what she would have to endure in her months to come.

Sitting there, letting her thoughts trail on, she pondered about her first days as a ranger. She nearly fainted at the sight of having to fight off creatures that looked like man-eating beasts. Yet, she still had to remain with a strong force because of the title she held. She knew Kimberly would be proud to know the legacy of the Pink Power Ranger continuing as it was.

She would often think about the others during fighting. How did Rocky, Kim, Adam, Aisha, Jason, and Tommy go through so much? When, truth be told, through half the battle, she often wanted to quit. She knew the others thought about it as well; and at times thought someone would bring up the subject. Yet she would know that no one on the team would think of beginning such a discussion for fear of showing weakness.

Kat looked around the tub and felt bored. She smiled and shook her head as she thought back to only a couple of minutes ago when a bath sounded like a good idea. She sat there looking around playing with the bubbles and trying to massage the throbbing parts. She soon decided to get up and take a shower instead.

As she felt the instant cold water hit her before it turned warm, she gasped in a breath of air causing her lower back to hurt even more than it was. _Smart move_, she thought to herself sarcastically.

She picked up her hands and shampooed her hair. While massaging her scalp, she felt her arms wanting to give up on her. It was then when she remembered not being able to lift up her water bottle after ballet practice. She remembered having a battle and having to go to practice only minutes after. Her hand would start to tremble with the slightest bit of effort. She would often make a fist just to entertain herself in class as she saw the involuntary shaking of her fingers as she did so.

Katherine got out of the tub and grabbed the towel next to her. She wrapped it around her body not minding the cold tile getting wet. She walked over to the sink and grabbed her toothbrush. With her hand, she rubbed the fogginess off of the mirror but noticed that it wouldn't go away so easily for it kept coming back. She decided to go ahead and proceed in putting toothpaste on the bristles instead.

She felt her right thigh throbbing as she looked down at the sink. She flinched a bit at this yet continued to brush her teeth. As she spat out the water, she bent over a bit. This made her back throb causing her to shut her eyes quickly in trying to mentally relieve the pain. She straightened up and wiped her mouth before leaving the bathroom and walking into her room.

As soon as she opened the door, she heard her communicator's six-tone beep and quickly rushed over to her bed having the towel drop a bit in the process.


	28. Chapter XXVIII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXVIII / Taking Back Life**

Zeo Red jumped into the air to kick a Cog on the head and came back down to swiftly turn and catch another before it charged him. He again jumped and kicked this one too like the other. The Cog fell and shook for a moment before being dismantled. Zeo Red then looked around and saw three more Cogs heading his way. He charged at one punching it as he arrived in front of it. The Cog fell back and Zeo Red saw by the corner of his eye another Cog on his side. He elbowed it before looking around for the other one. Sure enough, the other one was near him. Zeo Red felt a strong kick on the side of his ribcage as he bent to his left feeling the blow. "Ugh!" came out of the red ranger before seeing the Cog's fist heading toward his helmet. Zeo Red then blocked it with his left arm as his right hand still held his side tightly. He then retrieved his right hand from its place and punched the Cog forcefully upper-cutting it on his chin making the Cog fly back a few feet before it too shook and dismantled.

A Cog ran toward Zeo Yellow as she was running from it toward a wall. From the speed she was in, she ran up the wall a bit and somersaulted backwards landing on her feet facing the wall again to see the Cog crash into it. She then felt a punch on her back causing her to fall forward and onto the ground. She turned around and looked up to find two Cogs heading her way. One lifted its offensive compartment up from its metal head. Two laser beams went flying her way. Zeo Yellow at this moved to her right rolling in the process. The beams just barely dodged her as they hit the cement beside her. She then noticed it fire at her again. At this, she rolled to the other side quickly getting her pistol in the process. As soon as she turned to face the Cogs again, she fired her pistol at it striking it in one of the eyes. _Good shot_, she thought to herself as she quickly got up seeing the Cog start going around in circles from her messing up its circuits with the shot.

The Gold Ranger ran up to one of the Cogs and punched it in the stomach as he noticed another coming toward him. He continued to fight that one as he swept it to make it fall and start shaking on the ground. Another Cog made his way toward him before he could see it. The Cog punched the Gold Ranger on his helmet making Zeo Gold's neck hurt so much that he fell from the impact. "Shit" he said under his breath as he again got up and tackled the Cog down falling on top of it in the process. The cog started shaking on the ground causing the Gold Ranger to quickly get up and start fighting other Cogs. The gold ranger noticed to his left that two Cogs were heading his way. He jumped up and kicked them both at the same time before coming back to the ground. He anticipated his fall inaccurately making him fall on his back. As he lay on the floor, he saw a Cog stand in front of his head. He looked up to find the Cog's foot stepping on his chest harshly.

"Yaw!" Zeo Pink yelled as she kicked a Cog on the side before kicking again with the same foot on the chest making it fall back. She jumped over him heading to another Cog heading her way. "Hee-ya!" she yelled as she punched and kicked the Cog ending the combo with a spinning kick making it spin around and fall on its face. As she looked down at the Cog, she smiled under her helmet mentally patting herself for perfectly doing the move Tommy had taught her. She looked up to find a Cog flying feet first toward her abdomen causing her to let out a breath as she fell back bending her body forward. The Cog quickly got up and kicked her helmet making the pink ranger roll to the side and get up groggily.

The Gold Ranger tried to take the foot off with his hands but noticed that he couldn't as he felt the pain rushing down to his ribs. He felt as if he had a huge machine on top of his chest as the Cog pressed down on him yet again. The Gold Ranger then called on his staff and had it appear in his hand. He hit the Cog's leg weakly but couldn't get the Cog to budge. He then saw the Cog being shot by a laser on the head. Zeo Gold looked up to his right where the shot was fired. He then saw Zeo Blue rushing passed him as he saw another Cog making his way toward him.

Zeo Blue jumped at the Cog firing his pistol once more. "Ha-ya!" he yelled as he punched a Cog with his free hand after firing at the other one. Zeo Blue then looked back and saw the Gold Ranger getting up and starting to fight again. This made the blue ranger run to another part where he saw four Cogs making their way toward Zeo Green. Zeo Blue caught them before getting to his friend. He fired his pistol once more and shot a Cog in the back of the head making it fall forward and hit the ground before dismantling itself. This made the other three turn toward Zeo Blue and started making themselves toward him. He then kicked another on the side making it fly towards its right causing it to fall on another one making them both dismantle.

Zeo Green ran from two of the Cogs that were behind him. He jumped up and somersaulted backward as he flipped in the air over both of them. One was behind the other, so when he landed, the two turned around and he kicked the one that was closer to him making it fall back and on top of the one behind it. "Ha!" Zeo Green yelled once another Cog had made his way toward the green ranger. He punched the Cog before kicking it in the chest while seeing it fall to the ground. He then felt something hit him on the back of his right leg. He fell backward still having is feet flat on the floor. Zeo Green looked behind him to find a Cog in a warrior stance waiting for the next move from the ranger. The Cog though didn't wait, it kicked the ranger on the head making Zeo Green fly and roll to his left. "Ah!" he said as he was rolling. "Alright, that's it" he said under his breath as he got up and retrieved his Zeo Pistol quickly. He shot a number of eight consecutive shots toward the Cog seeing it fall and start shaking before dismantling.

Zeo Red made his way toward another Cog that was heading toward Zeo Pink. He jumped toward it and kicked it on the head before noticing another heading his way with another at its side. Zeo Red at this punched one and the other was soon punched as well making both of them fall back before both getting up again and charging the ranger. Zeo Red jumped up at one and kicked it on the side of the head causing it to fall to the side hitting the other Cog and making both fall yet again. The one that had gotten kicked got dismantled, yet the other one got up again. "You just don't…" Zeo Red said before kicking it on the head as it was half way up, "give up!"

Zeo Yellow then turned to the other one but this time the Cog kicked her on her side having it then punch her as she went down. Having her Zeo Pistol in her hand, she lifted it up in the air pointing it at the Cog. She fired her weapon and saw the Cog fall backward. She noticed the other once still going around in circles before she ran toward it and kicked it making it fall and dismantle in the process.

"Damn" Zeo Pink said as she got up from being hit yet again, but couldn't say anything else as another Cog came and kicked her on the stomach making her fall on her stomach and back down on the floor. She then got on all fours and swept one of the Cogs making it fall backward as she looked at the other one noticing it making a fist and throwing it at her. She placed her arm out and blocked the hit before grabbing its wrist and pulling it toward her. She flipped the Cog as she flipped on the floor backward as well making the Cog land on top of the other one that was still dismantling itself in the process. She turned as she was still crouching down on the floor before getting up and running toward another Cog before punching it on the head then kicking it on the stomach.

Zeo Green nodded under his helmet before looking up and seeing yet another two Cogs heading his way. He ran toward them not waiting for them to get to him. He punched the Cog to his left before kicking the other Cog with his right leg causing them both to fall to the sides. The one on his left got up again before the one on his right started to shake vigorously. He made his way toward the one on the left that was now standing heading toward the ranger. Zeo Green at this fired his pistol yet again to find the Cog go flying backward and onto the floor before being dismantled.

The last Cog jumped toward Zeo Blue swiftly catching the blue ranger off guard and made him fall backward as he dropped his Zeo Pistol in the process. The Cog fell on top of the blue ranger yet not being able to keep its balance. It fell to the side and Zeo Blue knew this was his chance to dismantle the Cog. He punched the Cog as the two were still on the ground causing the Cog to be rolled to the side. Still the Cog did not dismantle and it quickly got up before Zeo Blue did. At this it made its way toward the ranger on the floor. Zeo Blue swept the Cog to the floor before standing up and running toward his Zeo Pistol. He retrieved it turning to a now struggling Cog. Zeo Blue pulled the trigger on the pistol and watched as the laser beamed the Cog on the chest and made it dismantle itself.

- - -

"What do you suppose _that_ was all about?" Rocky asked Billy as the painting team made their way toward Billy and Alpha.

"I have no idea. There is no sign of a monster" Billy stated pressing buttons on the consoles. "Maybe…" he continued as he looked at the viewing globe, "hmm" he simply said before wrinkling his eyebrows.

"What is it?" Kat asked looking at the viewing globe then back at Billy.

"RANGERS, I AM SENSING SOMETHING BAD COMING FROM THE MACHINE EMPIRE" Zordon stated in his loud voice making the rangers look up at him.

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked his mentor as he walked up to him, "There's no monster."

"Maybe Gasket's just trying to scare us and not want us to get any sleep…again," Jason added after his statement.

"I'd wish _that_ was the case" Adam told him placing his gloved hand on Tanya's shoulder.

"It looks like everything's peaceful" Billy stated before turning off the viewing globe yet remained pressing buttons.

The rangers had no intention of leaving and Zordon knew it so decided keep them there for a while later as they figured out what was going on.

Tanya made her way into the other room as she powered down being followed by Adam.

Rocky took a couple more steps next to Billy as Kat turned around to sit on the stairs placing her knees up and her helmet on them as she rested her chin on it looking straight ahead.

Tommy at this turned toward her and took a deep breath while walking toward her. He too powered down and sat next to her.

"Hey" he told her as he began to rub her back, "something wrong?"

Katherine closed her eyes and shook her head no. She opened them again to look at him, "I'm just tired I guess."

Tommy nodded and looked straight out again, "yeah" he said before getting red as guilt fell upon him at the thoughts he had of her just and hour earlier.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him seeing his face.

"Huh?" he asked jumping out of his thought and looking at her again, "Nah" he said shaking his head and smiling.

He then felt a warm nervous feeling as he noticed Kat resting her head on his shoulder making him wrap his arm around her and rest his head on hers.

Jason turned to see his friend and his crush closer than he had ever seen them and smiled as he turned to the consoles once more to help Alpha with the scanning device still trying to get a little more used to the new controls of the Power Chamber.

- - -

Tanya walked toward the Power Chamber's restroom before noticing Adam behind her.

"Jeez, I can't even go to the restroom now?" she asked him making him laugh.

"Yeah, but I think you need a body guard" he told her sucking in his stomach making his chest pop out.

She laughed and punched him in the stomach making him laugh as well as he exhaled and got back to normal.

"I'll be right back" she told him as she opened the door and went inside. As she went into the restroom, she walked towards the toilet hoping that the alarms didn't go off as she sat down to pee.

Outside in the hallway, Adam sat on a provided bench and waited for Tanya as he placed his hands in front of him and began to play with his thumbs.

- - -

Rocky tried to remain busy helping Billy and Alpha out as much as possible to get his mind off of his problems. He looked in the back and saw Tommy hugging Kat. To his right, he saw Jason getting shocked by a wire that he was trying to figure out what it was. He laughed a bit and chuckled louder as he witnessed this. He then turned to see Adam and Tanya coming into the main room hand in hand more in love than ever. This made him look down to find the floor to be very interesting. He took a deep breath and let it out as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Billy asked him coming up behind him.

Rocky at his jumped but smiled afterward. "Yeah" he said, "I was just thinking about Sherry."

Billy saw the pain in his friend's voice and eyes but didn't want to say the wrong thing to Rocky. Instead he just nodded and grinned a little letting him know he understood.

- - -

The rangers didn't find anything but were told by their mentor that they should go home and get some rest. They did as they were told, and they all went to sleep trying not to think of Gasket's next step for fear of not getting any sleep at all.

- - -

"I can't believe you Sprocket! This is by far the most incompetent thing you've done!" Prince Gasket was furious with his younger brother after finding the rangers battling the Cogs.

"But…big brother" Sprocket whined, "I was just trying to help you out."

"No need for this" Dream Master said as he looked over at Gasket. "Have your minions follow me…it is time."

- - -

Tommy awoke to find his eyes squinting tightly as the sun showed through his bedroom window illuminating his room.

_Man, what time is it?_ He thought to himself as he looked over at his alarm clock that was beeping loudly. "Oh shit!" he said out loud getting up rapidly off his bed and heading to the bathroom, _I'm gonna be late for school_, he thought.

- - -

"Why, Mr. Oliver, how good of you to join us" Ms. Applebee told him once he opened the classroom door and walked into class.

"Sorry Ms. Applebee, I forgot to set my alarm properly last night" he told her before thinking to himself that he specifically remembered setting his alarm for six in the morning.

He disregarded this and walked over to his seat before stopping in mid classroom. He looked behind Jason and found Kimberly Hart, sitting in Katherine's seat.

"Mr. Oliver, have you forgotten where to sit?" Ms. Applebee asked him as he remained standing there staring at Kimberly.

"Huh?" he turned to ask her making everyone in the classroom laugh.

He resumed to sit wondering why Jason was in Rocky's seat and he wondered where Rocky could be not being able to get the question as of _why_ Kimberly was there at all.

- - -

Tommy barely made it through his classes not knowing what was going on. He was deep in thought as he walked toward his locker.

"Hey bro, ready for a little football?" Jason asked him coming up to him.

"Football? Dude, I quit the team, remember? I told you about it when you came back. It got too in the way of my karate."

Jason nearly widened his eyes all the way. "No, I don't remember. Came back from where?"

"From San Diego."

"Huh? Tommy, are you feeling alright?"

Tommy then shook his head and looked at Jason, "Do you think Gasket has something to do with this?" he asked in a low voice.

"Who's Gasket?" Jason asked his friend nearly chuckling.

"Gasket…you know…never mind. I'll talk to Zordon about it."

"Zordon?" Jason then asked looking at his friend questioningly.

"Huh?" was everything Tommy could say before looking down at where his communicator should be finding nothing but a black watch in its place.


	29. Chapter XXIX

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. Batman: The animated series belongs to DC Comics._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXIX / Where in the World is Zeo Ranger 5…Again**

Tommy walked into the Youth Center to find Kimberly going over to him giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Hey" she told him grabbing on to his flannel open shirt.

He kissed her back and somewhat wrinkled his eyebrows. "Umm…" was the only thing he got out. He then looked over to the rest of the Youth Center. _Where are Rocky, Aisha, and Adam?_ He walked over to the table holding Kimberly's hand in his as he sat down.

"Zack, Trini" he said going over to them and patting Zack on the back.

"Hey man. What's up with you?" Zack told him smiling and patting Tommy's back.

"Yeah, it seems like you haven't seen us in like forever" Trini commented as she saw him sit down.

"I haven't" Tommy said under his breath before hearing Kim's voice.

"What was that?" she asked him as she sat next to him pulling a strand of brown hair in back of her ear.

"Huh? Oh" he said smiling and wrapping his arm around her, "nothing."

- - -

"Billy, have you managed to find him?" Kat asked Billy as she again crept beside him anxiously.

"No. I don't understand. His communicator isn't showing a pulse," he said making her gasp and look at Jason.

Jason at this placed his hand over her shoulder to reassure her that everything will be okay.

At that, Adam and Tanya arrived with Rocky in three colored lights of yellow, green, and blue.

"Hey, anything?" Jason asked as the colors disappeared.

"No, nothing" Adam said slightly raising his hands before putting them both into his pockets.

Katherine shook her head while biting down on her lip. "I can't believe this" she whispered inaudibly enough for the rest not to hear. She looked down at the grown and felt her eyes get watery before feeling a hand around her. She turned to find her best friend trying to console her.

"It's going to be okay Kat. We're going to find him" she told her as she caressed Kat's arm.

Jason, on the other side of the Power Chamber kept conversing with Rocky.

"So, you didn't find anything?"

"Nah" Rocky stated shrugging, "It's like Gasket took him again."

"That can't be though. It's not those evil people's style to play the same trick twice" Jason shook his head before turning and looking at Tommy's old white ranger suit on one of the holding tubes in front of him. "He _has_ to be okay."

Jason stared at the white suit feeling Rocky pass by him and walk over to Adam who was helping Billy with the searching units.

Tanya at this saw that they might need some help and looked at Kat whom seemed alright and decided to take a look at the consoles herself. Kat saw her friend go over to the rest of the ranger team, but turned to notice Jason staring out blankly in front of her though his back was turned to her.

"Jason" she said walking up behind him and having him turn to her, "are you okay?"

"Yeah" he said quickly cocking a smile to one side. "I'll be fine."

"That's not what I asked."

"What do you mean?"

"I asked 'are you okay?' as in right now."

"I guess I didn't respond to that."

"No…you didn't."

"I'm okay," he said after turning again and looking the other way.

Katherine stepped forward and went around him to have him face her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do you?"

She paused a bit before answering sadly, "No…I guess not," she said turning around and walking away from him before feeling his arm pulling her back.

"I'm sorry," he simply said as she made her way forcibly back to him. "I didn't mean to be an ass."

"I know," she said looking down embarrassed that she had somehow agreed with him, "I mean, I know what you're going through."

He nodded before looking at the ground as well. "It's just that…he's my best friend" Jason managed to get out without even bothering to look up at Kat's eyes. " I don't know if I can do this again" he confessed.

Katherine looked directly into Jason's eyes after lifting his head up to meet her leveled with her hands. She smiled at him sadly, "we are going to do everything we can to get him back here" she told him before pulling him in for a tight embrace.

- - -

"I've really missed you Kim" Tommy told Kimberly as they were sitting on a park bench.

"Tommy, are you feeling okay?" his girlfriend asked him cocking her head to the side and smiling at him.

Tommy took a long deep look at her inhaling to take in her sweet scent. "Yeah…everything's great" he told her pulling her into him and giving her a passionate kiss that surprised her immensely.

"Wow" she simply said widening her eyes and looking deep into his eyes once the kiss broke.

"I've been wanting to do that since…"

They heard a loud banging noise and both stood up immediately.

"What was that?" he asked as he started to walk toward the sound cautiously.

"Tommy wait, it might be a monster!"

"Monster? I though there were no power rangers" he pondered to himself though still being heard by her as she responded toward his questioning.

"There are no power rangers, Tommy" she said taking his hand and pulling him, "Just the fire rangers. Come on, we gotta go." As soon as the last word left her mouth, the monster alarms started to ring.

"What's going on?" he asked himself as he pulled away from her grasp and ran toward the commotion.

"Tommy!" he could hear Kim cry as he kept running in the direction.

As he pushed a large trashcan blocking his path, he looked toward his front and saw a hill blocking the smoke coming from the ground below. He ran up the large lump and was frozen in shock at what he saw when he arrived at the top. His jaw dropped as he witnessed five colored heroes fighting off a ferocious monster.

The colors were not of the ranger colors at all. The two small frames belonged to a burgundy color and a hot pink color. The three larger frames of figures were orange, brown, and hunter green.

"They're our Zeo outfits," he said to no one as he continued to watch the fight go on with the rangers having the upper hand.

"Tommy" he felt a strong slap on his back making him turn around. "What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?"

"I'm sorry Kim. I just needed to see this," he said incredulously.

"Come on Tommy, we have to get out of here" she told him as she hurried her statement forcefully.

"Okay" he said feeling her body shake intensely knowing that she had no idea at this point what it was to face a monster.

As they ran back, he couldn't help it think that Kimberly would never run away from a monster much less shake in one's presence.

- - -

"Ugh!" Billy groaned under his breath as he heard the alarms go off inside the Power Chamber.

"What's going on?" Tanya asked jogging over to the consoles next to Billy.

"Like if we didn't have enough problems already" he said looking at the viewing globe and pointing in that direction causing the others to turn as well.

"Rita and Zedd" Adam said tonelessly as he saw Zedd on top of a mountain with his staff pushing the waves into the sea and Rita behind him laughing at his actions.

"If that water hits the middle of the ocean and comes back as a wave, it'll cause a disaster" Katherine stated showing her knowledge of the water from her experiences of surfing.

"What are we gonna do?" Rocky asked looking around.

"I'll tell you what" Jason said as he got into stance, "It's morphin' time!"

- - -

"Now Tommy, this life that you speak of" Mrs. Sullivan told him as he sat across from her in her sofa, "it's all part of a double life you created for yourself."

"But why? I mean, it was all so real," he said not believing her.

"Maybe you thought your life was a little dull. Most of these cases Tommy are part of a piece that isn't quite extravagant to believe."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this life that you created, you told me you found out that you had a brother. It's filled with heroes that you made up, and has people coming in and out of your life."

"What does that tell you?" he asked wanting her to know the answer.

"You are afraid of abandonment Tommy, so you caused your three friends to win a trip for the peace conference that Bulk and Skull won. You also sent Kimberly to leave to Florida and find someone else so she could break up with you from afar. Adam, Rocky, Aisha, Katherine, and Tanya have all been either made up by you or you've seen them around dealing with similar problems, that's why you've brought them into your world."

"I can't believe this," he said grabbing his head as if it were too much information given to him at once. "If I love all these people, why would I send them away?"

"It all dates back toward your childhood Thomas. Your father left you when you were seven, and you couldn't handle feeling so much responsibility falling on you as you saw him walk out of those doors. As time progressed, you made yourself believe that you were adopted to escape yourself from your father's blood. When you made your best friend disappear, you made yourself a brother that lived on a resort. Eventually, you couldn't cope with the loss of your friend, so you brought him back."

"But if I couldn't cope with the leaving of Kimberly, why didn't I bring her back?"

"Because you found another way to cope your feelings for her, as you found other ways to cope your feeling towards your other friends that left."

"By replacing them?" he asked her squinting his eyes and sitting back.

"You didn't replace them in a way that they were still there for you, except for the fact that you wanted other people to identify with. You felt so sure that they would leave you like your father did, that you forced them out of your life, and into ones of their own."

"This is heavy," he said shaking his head and placing his hand over his eyes. He felt a warm hand on his before moving it to the side to show his therapist's face.

"You've finally broke them free, Tommy" she told him while holding his wrist for reassurance.

"But, why?"

"What caused this you mean?"

"Yeah…I mean, how come all of a sudden, I'm normal or better?"

"Well, it could be several things. A nightmare, a powerful dream, a car accident, someone talking to you about your identities that you've created, or just maybe even blinking. No one really knows what triggers one to go from the real world into their created reality."

"Maybe loneliness?" he asked himself, "But, I'm not alone at all. Maybe I just realized that all my friends around me still being here has helped me realized that they won't leave me."

"When you first came in at thirteen, you would go back and forth. Your mother said you would only begin to identify with your personalities in private. Then they started to take over your head as you allowed them to because you enjoyed the battle. After that, the rangers came into town and started fighting off the bad guys. You created yourself and your friends as rangers. Yet, you didn't just want to become a ranger like they did. You waited a while and then came into the picture and made yourself evil thinking it would be more fun that way. After that you became a ranger yourself and you wouldn't come in and out of it anymore."

"I became stuck in a world that I created?" he asked himself with fear in his tone.

"Yes Tommy, but don't worry. I've worked with you for many years. We're finally getting to the point where you're going to be knowing about your true life in no time."

"How do I do that?"

"Just go about your day regularly and as you teenagers say it, 'go with the flow' and just let everything take its coarse."

"Okay" he said softly still not being able to believe everything around him.

"Alright, I'll see next week," she said as she stood up and walked him out to the receptionist.

"Wait a minute" he told her as he got his appointment slip, "if I was in a world of my own for so long, how come you let me roam the streets so much?"

"Because" she told him pulling him to the side where no one could hear for confidential reasons, "you would come in and out of it at different times where you weren't doing anything. Besides, we found that you were in no way a threat to society."

"Oh" he said as he turned to walk out the door.

- - -

"I can't…hold it…much…longer," Tanya said between grinding her teeth and taking deep breaths. She held down the controls of Pyramidas along with Jason. The two were holding down the anchors so the water would come back slowly in small amounts while Adam, Kat, and Rocky were taking the controls of the Super Zeo Zords throwing large rocks into the ocean to stop the process of the wave coming in so high.

"Hang in there…Tanya!" Jason said as he too began to grind his teeth from the weight both of them had to place on the controls to keep from tipping over.

- - -

"You know Zeddy, this has been your best plan yet" his wife screeched at him as she went over and sat next to him.

"Why thank you my darling dearest, I couldn't have done it without the help of Stogu and Alpoa whom gave me the energy in my staff to do so" Zedd countered as he wiped down his staff.

"I bet it was my cooking that made them give us that discount" she told him as she mentally patted herself on the back.

"Or maybe it was that potion that Finster did for you guys to stash in their drinks" Rito said interrupting them in their conversation.

"Shut up Rito!" Rita told him snapping at him making Rito scratch his head in not knowing what he said wrong.

- - -

"Look at those imbeciles, they are completely doing our work for us" Archerina said walking over to her husband and placing her metallic hand over his robed shoulder.

"Yes my dear" Gasket said evilly, "but let's just have a little more fun shall we?" He turned toward Klank. "I want you to take that monster and send it down to earth," he said pointing at Klank's most recent work.

"Yes sire, right away" Klank told him as he took Orbus and the fully functional Hydro Contaminator that he took to his lab to rebuild.

"I want those Power Rangers gone by sunset."


	30. Chapter XXX

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. Batman: The animated series belongs to DC Comics._

**Budding**

**Chapter XXX / Mother Nature's Own**

"I can't believe this" Tommy told Kim as he opened his present.

"Do you like it?" she asked him taking her hand in his as she smiled making him smile as well.

"I love it" he told her bending down and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Well silly, try it on" she told him pushing him a bit away from her wanting him to put on the brown jacket she bought him.

"It fits just like a glove" he told her, _this looks like the jacket Kat gave me on my birthday_, he thought as he felt the soft material. "Thank you Kim" he said bending over again and kissing her yet again but this time having the kiss be longer and with a bit of lust in it.

As they broke, Kim looked at him puzzling but disregarded the kiss for now as she witnessed him open yet another present.

- - -

"Hey, push that over!" Zeo blue told Pink as he was in his Zord as was she.

"I can't!" she retorted in a frustrated tone.

"Wait, I got an idea!" Zeo green said as he pushed some controls and buttons on his Zord making it throw out a series of lasers toward a nearby cliff.

"What are you doing man?" Zeo blue asked him as he continued to pull giant rocks alongside Zeo pink.

"You'll see" Green told him making the cliff fall in the water causing it to go directly toward him.

"Adam!" Blue yelled seeing the green super zeo zord go down with a strong impact.

"Fall!" he yelled back at his friend.

"What!" Pink yelled at him trying to hold on to her own zord from tipping over.

"Just do what he says!" Zeo Gold yelled at both of them, as he too was frustrated at this point from holding on to the controls.

_Damn_, thought Blue as he let the Zord fall horizontally to try to stop the water.

"Kat, do it!" Gold yelled her way seeing the pink zord not falling.

"I can't!" she yelled fearing that it wouldn't work. She turned her zord around and started shooting at the sand in a side to side linear motion.

"Kat, what are you doing? Listen to Jason!" Zeo yellow yelled at her friend seeing her actions.

"Wait, let me see if this works!" she yelled back at her friend as the sand spread apart even more.

As soon as she was ready to turn back around and fall, a powerful green laser lashed her circle on the zord's chest making the zord sway from side to side and causing it to fall backward.

"Ah!" Pink yelled as she remained trying to grasp on to the controls.

"What is that?" Gold asked Yellow calmly as he looked at what took the zord down.

"It's a Hydro Contaminator" she told him as she still was struggling with the controls.

The oversized Hydro Contaminator made its way to the pink super zeo zord and shot at it again.

"Dammit!" could be heard coming out of Blue as the blue super zeo zord could be seen getting up from its position. "Leave 'er alone Hydro Punchaminator" he said as he began punching the giant round-like monster.

At this, Zeo green did the same.

"Tanya, call on your super zeo zord and turn his lights out" Gold told her as he remained hanging on to the controls.

"But, can you do this alone?" she asked him causing him to nod.

"Go!" he yelled at her making her not want to ask any more questions.

- - -

"I give you class of 1997" Mr. Kaplan said as he raised his arm out to the graduating class.

Tommy dressed in a purple cap and gown pulled off his cap and threw it up in the air along with the others.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for an ice cream sundae right about now" Kim told them as they made their way to Ernie's.

"Well, give no more…it's on me!" Tommy told her as he told the rest making them cheer.

"So, what are you gonna do now that we're out and about?" Jason asked Tommy as he put his arm around his shoulder.

"You know what I'm gonna do…settle down with my one and only" he told him as he looked at Kim making her turn and smile at him as she continued to walk.

"You're gonna go to school right?" Billy asked him making a face at his friend.

"Of course man…how else am I gonna take care of the one I love?"

- - -

"Zeddy, a monster has appeared!" Rita screeched at her husband before turning to face her minion, "Finster, what did you send out there?"

"Why my queen, I did no such thing" Finster told her, "I have yet to finish the monster I'm working on."

"Fine, fine, fine, I didn't ask for your life story" Rita told him. "Zedd, what are you going to do about this?"

"What are you talking about my love? Having a monster there can work for our advantage."

"Yeah I know but…"

"Come now bubble of hate…come sit by me and watch the destruction of the Power Rangers. Their legacy is about to come to its end."

- - -

"_Now listen you no good excuse for a pun, I said I want that monster bigger!_" Gasket's voice could be heard from the far off corner of the Lunar Palace as Sprocket got his suitcase ready and packed.

"I'll show him" he told himself out loud, "I can do _way_ better than Gasket ever dreamed of." His voice sounded sad and somewhat angry at the same time. How, after everything that had happened to his father, could he gather himself up and pull through this? Young Sprocket didn't know the answer to that question. 

"_Yes, your majesty_" could be heard coming out of Klank before he stepped out of the doors of the Lunar Palace.

- - -

"I love you Kimberly" Tommy told Kim as he slipped off her night gown and let it fall on the floor.

"I love you too Tommy" she replied shaking a bit at his action.

Tommy bent down a bit and took her head tilting it a bit toward him. He opened his mouth letting his lips fall on hers gently as he carressed her skin from her neck down to her abdomen.

He felt her fingers somewhat tickling his sides as she pulled off his shirt making him get aroused even more.

- - -

"Uh Jason?" Zeo Green's voice could be heard calmly but from some distinct reason, it had a fear to it.

"Yeah…Adam" could be heard as an answer through the Zord's speakers.

"Uh…" was the only thing that could come out of the Green ranger's mouth at that time.

"Go on Adam, finish it" Zeo blue said taking a few steps closer with his Zord, "the Hydro Contaminator is getting bigger!" He stated the obvious.

"Tanya…what does that thing do exactly?" Gold's voice was heard as Zeo yellow got into the cockpit of her super zeo zord and got in place to fight. He knew he could ask any other of the rangers, but for some reason, she had given information to him before hand and felt as if the information having it be either good or bad would still be better somehow coming from her.

"It contaminates the water" Zeo yellow said taking charge of her controls and calling upon the zord's weapons to be ready for now the immense growing monster that was growing even larger than it already was.

"What's it doing?" Pink asked squinting her eyes under her helmet as she noticed the now ten times bigger Hydro Contaminator was inflating for a 'large' reason.

"It's gonna blow!" Zeo blue yelled making the others either place their hands in front of their already protected helmets or just tried to step their Zord back a couple of feet.

- - -

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride" the priest told Tommy as he felt himself pulling himself toward his wife and kissing her passionately not even minding that they were in a church.

Everyone attending the mass cheered for the couple seeing them both turn simultaneously and smile at their friends and family.

"I love you Tommy" she told him spreading her smile even more than he thought it would go.

"I love you too Kimberly Anne…Oliver."

- - -

"Oh man, I just wanna crawl into a whole and die" Rocky said walking to his bed and falling face first onto the mattress turning his head to the side.

"Hey, what's up with you loser?" he heard a chirpy voice behind him.

"_Nothing, go away!_" could hardly be heard from his face now being dug into and pressed against his blankets.

"Oh come on" she told him walking up to him and poking his leg.

"Stop it" he told his younger sister as he forcibly lifted his head to tell her.

"Fine, but I know something you don't know" she told him as she walked out of the room cockily.

"Wait, come back! What is it?" he asked sitting up and turning toward the exit.

"Sherry called a while ago" she told him running down the stairs irritating him even more making him chase after her to get some answers.

- - -

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" Tanya asked Kat as she sat up from her sitting position where she was on her friend's bed.

"Yeah Tanya. I'll be fine" she responded turning over and laying her head sideways on the pillow.

Tanya frowned and didn't know what to tell her at this point. She felt horrible about what was going on in with their leader, but she just knew that Kat was probably feeling a whole lot worst. She bit down on her lip and took a step toward her before stopping herself and standing there not quite knowing what to do.

"Umm" she began to spread her lips apart and say something before again stopping herself from letting the statement come out about Tommy. Instead, she turned and opened her friend's door, "see you in the morning Kat."

She had no response turning her way.

- - -

"You better get some sleep Jase" Billy told his friend patting Jason's shoulder in the process.

"I can't" was a statement much harder to come out of his mouth than he thought.

"Come on. It's been a long day for all of us. I gotta close down the Power Chamber or Zordon will have a fit" Billy said walking over to the controls and pressing buttons yet again.

"So that's it? You look for Tommy a day and you give up once it gets dark?" Jason asked angrily. He had not intended it to come out that way was his thought, but the statement still came out that way.

"Listen, Zordon already let me keep the sources up for more than he could allow me to. We need to shut everything down or it will overload the main controls and shut everything down by tomorrow" Billy told Jason walking passed him getting a little irritated himself. Sure he was mad and annoyed at this point for what had happened to Tommy, but he had spent every hour that day looking for him and he was exhausted at this point. He knew the Power Chamber was not meant to be running for twenty-four hours straight because it would manually shut down to get the power it needed for the next day.

"What about the back up controls and power? Can't you use _those_ for…"

"Look, Jason, I can't. I spoke to Zordon, he doesn't find it a good idea to use it because they can only be used once. This is when our enemy feels us the most vulnerable, they are going to hit us with everything they've got. We gotta be prepared for anything" Billy explained.

Jason closed his eyes and pictured himself punching Billy in the face but opened them again to find the face of a dear friend of his staring into his eyes with sadness in his features.

"I can't do this again" Jason whispered feeling his eyes grow heavy and witness his sight get blurry. He blinked and regretted it instantly for when he did so, he felt streams of tears run down his face and embarrassment quickly caught up with him.

Billy having seeing this, pulled Jason in quickly and hugged him in a brotherly way patting Jason's back sharply making him know that he was there for him.

"_I can't man_" was the only thing Billy could make out from having Jason's face buried in his shoulder.

"It's alright Jason…I know how you feel" Billy said feeling his eyes get watery as well.


	31. Chapter XXXI

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. Batman: The animated series belongs to DC Comics._

**A/N:** I am very happy to say that I have now finished my summaries for this story and it is not far from finishing…FINALLY! So, hope you guys like the next few chapters to come.

**Budding**

**Chapter ****XXXI / Reading is Hard to do**

"Come on Kimberly, just one more push" Dr. Hendrix could be heard as he held a small life in his hands.

Tommy was there, looking at his wife sweating, screaming, and pushing.

"Ah!" Kimberly let out a stressful yell as she pushed once more before hearing a splash of water hit the floor. Tommy saw a nurse come up to the baby and suck out its liquid from its mouth before it began to cry.

"Kim, are you okay baby?" he asked soothing down his wife's wet hair.

"Yeah" she said with a weak tone, "I'm fine." Nothing else was said, she slipped into a deep sleep.

- - -

"We need Zeo Zord power, now!" the four rangers yelled out stretching out their hands.

Each got into the cockpit of their own zords and began yet another battle with one of Gasket's monsters.

"Guys" Zeo Gold's voice rang loudly inside the others' helmets, "I'm taking Pyramidas into the city and try to stop Angel Grove from becoming flooded."

The wave Zedd had caused with his staff was gone, yet the water that did succeed to get through was now surfacing in the far end of Angel Grove. Billy could not get the distressed signal until it was too late. Calling in the rangers for Gasket's monster, he realized the problem. The controls were left on too long and now they weren't working as well as they usually did.

"Okay Jase, come back quick though" Zeo Green told him before receiving a blow on the zord's abdomen.

"I'll try" came a simple tone from Gold having been gone at this point.

- - -

Sherry paced back and forth in her soccer uniform waiting for Rocky to pick her up. He had called her back and they were both now trying to get their relationship back, but things weren't looking as if he had the slightest bit of interest to try to make it work.

"Sweetie, are you sure you don't want me to take you?" Sherry's father, Omar, asked the fuming Sherry.

Sherry, hiding her frustration said, "No dad. I'm sure he'll be here."

"Okay, I'll be in the kitchen if you change your mind."

"Okay" she simply said before turning around and going over to sit on the steps of the porch with her bag and belongings.

- - -

"What is those imbeciles doing?" Gasket asked seeing Zedd and Rita combining their staffs.

A monster appeared far off in the distance that the rangers were fighting in.

"It looks as if they are sending down a monster sire" Klank said as he held on to Orbus with both hands.

"I know that you poor excuse for a servant" Gasket told him raising his sword toward Klank's neck.

"Darling don't waste your time nor energy on Klank" Archerina told her husband, "You should be taking it out on Zedd and that meddling witch Rita."

At this, Klank mentally sighed as he saw Gasket lowering his sword from his servant's neck.

"You're right my dear" he said putting it back in its place, "It's Zedd whom I should be killing. Besides, I need a bit more of a challenge than Klank would give me."

He set course toward Rita and Zedd's direction while beginning to make plans on what he would do to them and their crew.

- - -

Billy, in the Power Chamber in front of the consoles, received a minor late distress signal on the monster that Rita and Zedd sent down.

"Oh man" he told himself looking in the direction of the now ringing alarms.

"Rocky, Tanya, head over with your zords to the north side of Angel Grove. It's a pretty wide space so you can get there fairly quickly. Another oversized monster is attacking Angel Grove."

"_We're on it Billy_" Zeo Blue's voice came into the Power Chamber.

"Billy, you're not looking so good" Alpha told Billy as he saw the young genius sweating profusely."

"I'm alright Alpha" Billy assured him as he felt his breath yet again running out of breath.

"BILLY" Zordon's deep voice said, "ALPHA IS RIGHT. YOU SHOULD TRY TO RELAX AND TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO RECOVER FROM WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE FEELING."

"No" Billy simply said walking over to the device that was now scanning for the lost Zeo ranger, "I'll be fine, we just need things back the way they were. I'm sure it's just stress."

"Billy, Zordon and I can take over for now" Alpha told Billy as he put a hand on his shoulder. "You should rest a bit. We will be sure to call you if there's something wrong."

Billy took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, "I can't Alpha. I wouldn't be able to rest knowing that my mind will be going on a lot more than it is now not being here."

"Very well" Alpha said with sadness being shown in his voice. "What do you want me to do now Billy?" he said sighing.

"See how Rocky and Tanya are doing. If you see them in trouble, send Katherine to help them. Then check on Jason and see if he needs any kind of help." Billy witnessed Alpha not saying a word and walking toward the viewing globe. Billy then turned his head up toward Zordon, "Zordon, are you getting anything on Tommy's appearance and location?"

"NO BILLY, BUT I WILL TELL YOU AS SOON AS I FIND SOMETHING" Zordon told him not wanting to add more to the sentence knowing that Billy was already on pins and needles.

- - -

"Adam!" Zeo Pink's distressed voice yelled as she saw her friend's zord take a hard hit.

"Charging Zeo 1 blaster now!" she said as she pressed buttons on her individual zord, "Fire!"

The laser shot out of her zord's cannon compartment and onto the green's monster's chest and lover neck.

"You'll pay for that pepto!" he yelled at her as he got up from the blast.

"Kat, I think we're gonna have to call on the super zeo zords" Zeo Green said as managed to pick his zord up and began firing shock waves from his zord's horns.

"I think you're right."

"WE NEED SUPER ZEO ZORD POWER, NOW!" they both yelled simultaneously before getting again into different cockpits of their now stronger Super Zeo Zords.

As soon as Pink was in her zord, she felt a strong hit on her super zeo zord causing it to fly backward and land on its back.

- - -

The strong current was pushing away Pyramidas, being piloted by the Gold Ranger. The flood was now taking over his zord as well as all of Angel Grove.

Zeo Gold at this stretched out Pyramida's arms our to try to hold on to two buildings on each of its sides. It didn't work for it pulled the buildings along with it.

"Billy, do you have any ideas?" Gold stated as he witnessed the two now vacant buildings being destroyed by the zord.

"_Try anchoring Pyramidas down onto the ground Jason. Then take out the legs, split them open as well as the arms. It'll resist the water from heading into the city even more_." Billy's voice was heard inside his helmet.

"But, what about the street? I didn't anchor it because it'll destroy the street."

"_Jason, you already destroyed two buildings, five cars, and two houses with not anchoring it before. Anchor it now before more damage is done. I'm sure one more street won't be that bad._"

"Fine" Jason said getting frustrated at the tide more than anything now.

He anchored his zord and did as he was told by Billy who was now checking on the Blue and Yellow Zeo Rangers. They called out their Super Zeo Zords shortly after hearing their other two friends call on them.

- - -

The two Zeo Rangers were battling Rita and Zedd's monster as they continued the fight with punches and kicks at an oversized brick-like figure.

"Tanya, use your artillery to show this wall face what we're made of" Zeo Blue told Yellow.

"You got it Rocky!" she said with enthusiasm in her voice. She let out a series of combinations toward the gigantic monster.

"Alright!" Blue said lifting his arms inside his zord before he proceeded to attack it closer now. He headed toward the monster and punched it several times causing it to fall to the ground seeing the Yellow super zeo zord head its way as well.

"Finish him off Tanya, I'm gonna go ahead and help the others" Zeo Blue said as he saw the yellow ranger giving him a series of jabs, punches, and kicks as the monster was again trying to get up once more.

"Alright Rocky, I'll be there as soon as I can."

- - -

Zeo Green swept his zord quickly under the mucous infested monster before slicing it in the process with one of his weapons.

Pink walked her zord up to the monster before getting hit again. "Jeez, he has it in for me today" she said stepping the zord back a few steps as she tried to regain her zord's balance.

"Hey, need any help?" Zeo blue asked both of them as he came up to their battle.

"You read my mind Rocky" Pink told him as she crossed her zord's hands and uncrossed them shooting thin blue lasers out of its round stomach and shooting the monster making it fall.

"Are you sure about that?" questioned the blue ranger jokingly.

- - -

Up on the moon, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa were having a bit of problems of their own as Gasket came up to them with six Cogs, his sword in his hand, and with a final frustration in his voice.

"How dare you want to spoil my plans in retrieving my father's empire? I'll have you hung for this you meddling poor excuses for villains." Gasket was by far more than frustrated. He was fuming at this point, which was making him even more irritated that Rita at this began to laugh.

"Now listen here you little wannabe King, I'll have you know that we have full custody of the Lunar Palace and will get it by taking you out of the way after we defeat the Power Rangers" Zedd argued with him.

Gasket scoffed at the insult before shrugging it off with a snort. "If you honestly think that you can take my place as king, you are wrong tin face" he told Zedd that walked up to him a few steps more showing that he wasn't afraid of neither him nor his small army.

"Look who's talking about tin face. At least I'm not made up entirely of rusted old parts that weren't meant to be recycled."

"How dare you tell me that?"

"From this day forward, not you nor your father will stand in the way of LORD ZEDD AND RITA REPULSA!" Zedd said lifting up his staff and having a shot of lighting shoot out of it causing their surroundings to darken and making Rita laugh even harder.

The lightning shock went directly toward the ocean and caused the water to retreat back into the ocean.

"You are such a fool!" Gasket said laughing after witnessing what Zedd had just done.

"Uhh…" was the only thing Zedd said before turning around and seeing Rita heading toward him.

"You reversed the spell you…" she trailed on as Gasket and his crew went back still laughing at Zedd toward the Lunar Palace.

- - -

"What?" asked a confused Gold ranger as he noticed the water heading back into the ocean's direction. "Billy, it's over!" he told his friend whom he was sure was listening.

"_That's…that's great Jason. Now…go help the others_" Billy's voice said sounding as if he was having trouble breathing.

"Billy, are you okay man?" asked the Gold ranger as he lifted the anchor out of the ground and began heading into his friends' direction.

"_Yes, Jase…I'll be fine_" Billy shut down the connection before more questions could be asked.

- - -

"Daddy, why did uncle Jason and aunt Trini miss my birthday?" the young Tommy Jr asked his father.

"Well son, because your aunt Trini is pregnant and she's in the hospital having the baby today" Tommy told his son as he saw the young boy begin to smile.

The now seven year old boy got under his covers as he followed his father's orders. "Daddy, can you read me a bed time story?"

"Of course son, which one do you want me to read you?" he asked heading toward his son's small colorful bookshelf.

"Hanzel and Gretel" he told his dad which was picking out a book from the bookshelf.

Tommy looked at the title and it only looked like a bunch of scribbles. "Huh?" he asked himself as he opened the book to find that he didn't understand the words. It looked like a bunch of lines and different reversed Ls and reversed Us.

He got another book from the bookshelf and saw the same thing on that book's title. "What's going on?" he asked himself as he opened it up and saw that the letters were unreadable as well.

"Daddy, what question could you never answer yes to?" his son asked.

"It isn't real" Tommy told himself. "One can read words unless…"

"Are you asleep?" his son asked him answering the riddle for him.


	32. Chapter XXXII

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. Batman: The animated series belongs to DC Comics._

**A/N:** I would like to thank Mr. ULTRA SONIC for the motivation of this chapter. Oh, and SORRY ahead of time. I didn't read/edit it before posting it. I'm really sleepy and I don't know if I'm gonna be online tomorrow. So, a million sorry's!

**Budding **

**Chapter ****XXXII / Reversing the Spell**

Zedd pushed his staff toward Gasket, whom pulled his sword up and blocked the shot. He then swung his staff toward the other side firing a shot toward a swarm of Cogs that were making their way toward them all.

"See if you can block _this_" Gasket's voice was heard as he pushed his sword up and hit Zedd's staff making it fly a couple of feet away from his grasp.

"My staff" Zedd growled angrily. Being empty handed, he grabbed both of Gasket's arms and pushed them back as he kicked his abdomen making Gasket fall back a bit.

Rito got up from his seat and grabbed his sword only to find three Cogs stopping him in the process.

"Hey!" he yells at them kicking one off to the side and punching another on its head though not being able to dodge the third Cog's punch landing on his left rib cage. This made Rito fall to the side making him hit the RV on his way down.

Goldar, seeing this, quickly stops arguing with Finster and runs to Rito to help him up after pushing the attacking Cog off to his back with his sword.

"Hey Goldie, thanks" Rito says as he dusts himself off causing a huge dust cloud to surround him and Goldar.

"You idiot! Stop that and let's help Zedd!"

He fans off the dust and makes his way to Rita who is now fighting off two Cogs of her own. She gets her staff and fires a laser beam out at one before using the same staff and jumping up supporting herself to kick another Cog heading her way.

"Alright sis!" Rito calls out to his sister seeing that she can truthfully defend her own. He runs to get his fallen sword that he sees getting kicked accidentally by Finster who is now running cowardly into the RV.

"Coward!" Rita yelled out at Finster seeing what Rito was seeing as well.

"I'm just…I'm just…" he began before changing his nervous tone into a scared yelling one, "I'm not suitable to be out and about in these types of conditions." He proceeded to run even faster into the RV closing the door behind him.

"We're just starting to get warmed up" one of the Tangus said as he jumped and flew into a number of Cogs making them fall back and start trembling with electrical trouble running through their bodies. Before the Tangu could get up, though, he felt a surge of powerful energy hit him on the back.

Before he could turn to see it was Archerina, he closed his eyes at being killed by the instant blow of her sword.

"Could you use my help?" she asked her husband cockily raising her sword in her air waving it around.

"Yes my dear…as you wish to battle, I'll let you fight just this one."

"Oh, thank you my love" she answered Gasket as she pointed her sword at Rito.

"Oh, so you wanna rumble with me huh" he said picking up his sword and getting into stance.

"No Rito…this one is mine!" Rita yelled out.

"Fine, suit yourself" he said to his sister. Looking around and seeing the Tengus getting rid of the Cogs and Finster coming back out to help with Rita's staff in defeating Archerina, he shrugged at having nothing to do though there was a full fledge battle going on around him. He picked up his sword and brought it down to its holding belt before walking to the TV and tuning in for a channel with good reception.

Goldar witnesses Rita take on Archerina as she a beam flying toward Archerina barely missing her. He shakes his head before quickly taking quicker and quicker steps toward Finster whom is trying to make her staff stronger by plugging in the machine and pushing buttons.

Goldar gets up to Finster and starts pressing buttons as well, ignoring Finster's pleas to get out of his way so he could work on her staff. Instead of taking that as an asnwer, Goldar at this pushes him aside his right hip and tells him to get lost.

"Finster, I know what I'm doing here. If you press this, this, and this, you can…" he began to say before hearing Rita's screech and turning to see her letting go of her staff noticing her hand completely burned. "Uh oh" he simply said before hearing Archerina's mocking laugh heading everyone's way.

At this, they all now hear a large roar coming from Zedd and Gasket's battle. They all see a huge laser beam head out of Zedd's staff and away toward Earth.

"What did you just do?" Rita asked him as she bent over to pick up her sword.

"I don't know. Finster, check what just happened" Zedd told the small white creature before seeing his wife head over to her telescope noticing her face getting red.

"Zedd, you idiot! You just reversed the spell completely. Now all the water from Angel Grove isn't flooding it no more! It's all heading back into the ocean!"

At this, Zedd completely forgot all of his rivals and sent out his viewing magnifier on his eyes as he viewed what happened on Earth."

- - -

Gasket's monster remained having the lower hand as he tried to defeat the rangers.

"NOW!" he heard the rangers yell from a now enormous battle zord.

Shots from all over the huge robotic giant began firing toward him. He leapt to the far side and wiggled his body toward a nearby hole in the ground. It wasn't big for his body so he mentally got smaller to find his huge body now the size of his originality and turning inside toward what now seemed an enormous hole.

"Wait! Hold your fire" Zeo Gold told them as he saw the monster not being there anymore.

"Is he gone?" Asked Zeo Blue standing up inside the zord and looking down.

"I think he is" the yellow ranger said as she too stood up and looked down.

"Shouldn't there be any residue" Zeo Pink asked now following yellow and blue.

"Maybe…the shots were so strong, it completely eliminated him" Zeo Green suggested as he too stood up and followed the others into the Power Chamber.

- - -

Sherry threw her soccer bag into the trunk of her dad's car angrily cursing at the bag that wouldn't land in the right position.

Omar at this shook his head and smiled a bit at his daughter's frustration probably causing her to give more to today's game.

She slammed his trunk's door and walked to the passenger side where she sat in and buckled up.

Once arriving at the school after a very quiet drive there, Sherry got out of the car and didn't even face her dad as she went to back, got her things and headed to the locker room where she knew the team would be.

"Hey Sher" she heard her teammate say before giving her a sad look.

"Hey J" she went over and sat at a bench where she began to put her shin guards on.

"Rocky huh?" Jennifer 'J' Gonzalez asked her.

"Yeah. I just don't get him. I mean, he tells me that he knows he screwed up with his jealousy and tells me that he'll make it up to me."

"So what happened?"

"I told him that after the game. Then he offers to bring me and he doesn't even show up at my house!"

Jennifer at this raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Men" she simply stated before putting on her long socks now.

"I can't do this anymore. He always says he was doing something when he does this. I just don't know if I can do this anymore."

"Don't sweat it girl. You know he's crazy about you. Just give him some time to explain, here his story out…then, chew him out."

At this Sherry grinned and laughed. "I guess you're right, hell, I'm crazy about him too" she admitted shrugging.

Their assistance soccer coach then came in yelling at them. "Alright girls, let's go. The alarms are gone, and the game's back on. So, we have to leave the locker room now. The school's volleyball team has to use the locker room before their game."

"Why can't _we_ stay here?" asked another teammate coming out of the stall, which she used to change.

"Because, since we're not with the school, they have first ownership to it."

"And what are we suppose to do about our pre-game pep talk and plays?" asked Jennifer following the other girls with gathering her belongings.

"We're taking our stuff to the football coach's office, we can talk the plays and positions out there."

He lead the girls to the large office where he gave them time to change and get ready fully for the game.

As Sherry walked passed the window, she noticed the parking lot. She looked around for Rocky's car or his dad's but found neither. She sighed before looking down and proceeding to tie on her cleats.

- - -

Zedd took a few steps back and looked around. Gasket was completely laughing hysterically at him. Rita's scoffed look in his direction wasn't making matters better. Rito was changing the channels on the small TV in front of the dirty loveseat and Goldar was pushing random buttons of the machine Finster had that was to make monsters and to help Rita's staff with its power.

"Have you nothing to say?" Gasket asked Zedd after he stopped laughing sarcastically and drawing his sword once more.

"I meant to do that" was the only thing Zedd told him before taking up a couple of steps toward the young prince. "I suggest you leave now before I show you what my wrath can really do!"

Gasket at this laughed once more and chuckled it off. "You are such a fool Zedd. You've always been a fool. I'll leave you with your little weak crew but just know this…" Gasket took one more big step to get up in Zedd's face now, "After I'm though destroying the rangers, you and your sorry excuse of a clan will be next." He turned to leave by taking steps away from Zedd and turning his head once more. "I suggest you leave on that retched zord of yours again, because next time…you shall not be so lucky."

A large gear appeared atop of Gasket and his crew hovering up in the air. Before Zedd had a chance to react to the insults and threats, the large hole sucked them up making them disappear out of sight.

- - -

"Hey Billy man, you alright?" Rocky asked Billy as they were all around the Power Chamber in their regular clothes still scanning for Tommy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that…I think I gotta go lay down" Billy told five worried faces along with a worried mentor and robot.

"Billy, don't worry, we'll take care of things here" Kat told him placing her hand on his shoulder before sliding it down to his back as she pushed him slightly in the direction of another room for him to get some rest.

"Thanks Kat…I just…I just don't know what's happening to me" he told her feeling his head get lightheaded now. He swayed to the side though grabbed onto her arm in the process.

"Easy Billy" she told him walking him a couple more feet to the cot where she gently sat him down and felt his head for a fever. "Just lay down here for now. Maybe later we can teleport you home" she told him holding on to his hand tightly trying to hide the worry in her face.

"Okay" he simply said before drifting off to sleep.

Katherine at this looked around and found a light blanket on the top of a nearby shelf. She retrieved it and went over to the cot and covered her friend with it. "Get better Billy, we really need you" she told him smoothing his forehead with her cool hand and quietly walking out to the main chamber.

- - -

Tommy ran from his house past his yelling wife and friends. He kept running, not minding the yells in his head getting louder and louder.

"Tommy!" they yelled, "Don't do it!" the screamed.

He proceeded on running to the top of a large church where he climbed an endless amount of stairs and halls to get to the very top where the bell sat.

"Tommy" he heard a voice from behind him very near.

He turned to see the Red Fire Ranger standing next to him.

"Who? Who are you?" he asked him not letting his fear show.

"I am the red ranger Tommy, not you."

"No you're not. You're nothing but a dream. This is all a dream!" he yelled out waving his hands around.

"Yes Tommy, it _is_ a dream" he heard the ranger tell him before turning into the Dream Master. "It is a wonderful dream."

"A wonderful dream?" he asked confused not knowing who this cloaked stranger was.

"Allow me to introduce myself Mr. Oliver. I am the Dream Master. Fulfiller of destinies."

"What do _you_ know about my destiny?"

"I know that this is your absent dream Thomas. The dream that you want, this is the dream that you are destined to get."

"Destined?"

"I can give you everything you've ever hoped for Thomas. I've given it to you already. It's up to _you_ to remain here, forever."

"No…you can't…you just can't" he said feeling the lightning strike harshly behind him causing him to jump up and turn to see a shower of rain coming down from the sky in loads.

"I can Thomas, and I have. Look around my boy" the fulfiller of destinies told him looking around and pointing Tommy into different directions. "This is what you have always hoped for. There are no responsibilities of rangering. No people dying on your behalf. No people screaming desperately for your help. No evil in you nightmares. No longing loves in the distance. No loved ones gone from the future. Better yet, no DEATHS!"

"You can't…do this," he said thinking hard still looking around at his surroundings.

"Tommy, give in to your pleasures, to all of your hopes and dreams. Give in to the life I have regained for you."

Tommy at this stopped to think things straight now. Had he wanted this lifestyle all along? He then remembered everything he'd been though. All the new faces he met. All the faces that weren't in his new life. Then the face of Jason came into his memory, remembering the fun they had sparring and defeating Adam and Rocky. The thoughts of meeting Tanya and Katherine at the library to just study and get their help on an assignment or two. Letting that thought drift toward Kat and remembering their almost kiss. Running his mind to his brother and finding with him his past. "NO!" he yelled at Dream Master before turning to him. "My destiny is out there! It's not a perfect life. It's not a perfect family. It's not a perfect anything!"

Tommy turned around once more before running toward the short balcony having hundreds of feet off the floor.

"NO!" Dream Master yelled seeing Tommy leap spreading his arms out with his head held high.


End file.
